F 1871 
.C21 
Copy 1 



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WEST INDIES. 



EXTRACTS 



FH01\r THE JOURNAL OP 



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JOHN CAN D LE R, 



WHILST TRAVELLING 



JAMAICA 



PART L 




CO LONDON : 
HARVEY AND DARTON, 

GRACECHURCH STREET. 



MDCCCXL. 



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HARVEY AND DARTON, PRINTERS, 6RACECHURCH STREET. 






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EXTRACTS, &c. 



Agreeably to the minute of the Yearly Meeting of 1839, 
encouraging the Meeting for Sufferings to send out to the 
West Indies one or more friends, with a view of inquiring 
into the present condition of the newly-emancipated Negroes, 
and also of ascertaining in what way the funds at the So- 
ciety's disposal might be most satisfactorily applied, the pro- 
posal of our friend John Candler and his wife, of Chelms- 
ford, to undertake this interesting and arduous service, was 
accepted, and they sailed from Falmouth, on the 4th of 11th 
month last, in the government packet-ship, Magnet, bound 
for Barbadoes. The following extracts, from the accounts 
transmitted of their proceedings^ are printed for the in- 
formation of Friends. 



Kingston, Jamaicay2Zd ofl2tk Month, 1839. 

Having dispatched one letter from Cape Haytien to my sisters, 
and prepared another, giving an account of our voyage, I now sit 
down to communicate a few particulars that may perhaps be inter- 
esting to thyself and our other friends of the Committee. On first 
day, the 24th ult-, when about 400 miles from Barbadoes, we dis- 
cerned a sail at sea, which the officers of our ship pronounced, 
from its appearance, to be a slaver. The commander, on the first 
day before, had called over the muster-roll, and read the prayers 
and lessons of the Church of England : on this occasion he put off 
the religious service, stating as a reason, that the strange vessel 
was suspicious cmft, and must be narrowly watched. Tlie port- 
holes were ordered to be opened, and the guns got ready, and 
powder and loaded fire-arms were brought on deck from the 
magazine. The Magnet, our vessel, is a man-of-war gun-brig, but 
has no authority to pursue or detain slavers. During the pre- 

B 



2 

paratioiis, myself and wife, and our young fiiend , retired 

to our cabin to enter on a service, which I hope will be 
ever dear to us, that of waiting on a God of peace : we felt 
not the least alarm, and the circumstance was, perhaps, useful 
to us, in bringing our Christian testimony against war to the 
test of individual principle in our own minds, and as leading us 
to look forward with hope and confidence to the time when all 
fightings shall be at an end. Before we left the cabin we heard a 
commotion on deck : the sailors were moving one of the great guns 
near to the forecastle, and there was much excitement. The com- 
mander had hoisted his pennant and flag, and the stranger making no 
reply, he w^as preparing, according to the rules of war, first to fire 
a-head of her, then to fire over her, and then to fire into her ; but 
before the match was applied she hoisted Sardinian colours, and 
we were compelled to move on. What she really was nobody 
could tell, perhaps a slaver, perhaps not ; but the officers said the 
colours were very likely meant to deceive us. The commander 
said he once came up with a slaver in distress, whose captain the 
night before had thrown fifty of his slaves overboard for want of 
water, but he could neither take nor detain the vessel; he sent 
them, however, a supply of water. 

We arrived at Barbadoes on the 6th instant, having been thirty- 
two days at sea, without once seeing land, and the same 
night set sail again by the mail-boat for St. Thomas. We 
had experienced some sea-sickness on board the Magnet and 
much discomfort, and for a few days some miserable feel- 
ings arising from squalls and head-winds that made the ship 
pitch and roll, the timbers creak, and heavy things to roll and 
tumble about on deck and the cabin-floors, so that we could not 
stand to dress, and had several bruises. We had dreaded the 
change to the mail-boat, which is a much smaller vessel, but found 
it on the whole an improvement : the passengers were reduced in 
number and the berths more commodious, and we could take all 
our meals upon deck under an awning. Enjoyment might now be 
almost said to begin : we were favoured with good health, lovely 
weather, gentle breezes, a smooth sea, and sailed among beautiful 
islands which it gladdened our eyes to see. 

Our captain, contrary to his regulations, stopped at Mar- 
tinique, and allowed us to land at St. Pierre. Nature has 
done much for this lovely island, spreading over it the beau- 
ties of tropical vegetation and a fertile soil, and man has 
done much to deform it. Slaveiy lingers here, and the lot 
of the servile population is still so hard that they are constantly 
making effbi-ts to escape. Joseph Sturge tells us, that large num- 
bers had escaped to the British islands when he was in the West 
Indies. I mentioned this fact to one of our fellow-passengei*s, a 
slave-owner at St. Thomas, who denied it, and said it was im- 
possible; that the French government would never submit to liave 



its runaway slaves harboured in the neighbouring islands, and that 
the English would not dare to detain them. I told him to make 
inquiry on shore. We all took a different course in the town, and 
went to different quarters. When we met again on board the 
vessel, my aforesaid friend said to a Kingston merchant, a 
thorough-paced planter's man, "Mr. Candler was right." Yes, 
was the muttered reply. My wife and I went to a large hotel kept 
by a Barbadian woman of colour. I asked her how things were going 
on in Martinique ? How are they going on ? why slaves had got 
to be of no value now ; she would gladly sell all she had for eighty 
dollars a-piece : two of her slaves had lately run away to St. Lucia, 
and there was no getting them back again : she wondered at one of 
them, for she had never even slapped her in the face : it was infa- 
mous, and the French government winked at it. I asked her how 
the slaves got away ? In boats, she said, and on rafts, and many of 
them were drowned : the coast-guard had often seen rafts upset 
and the negroes perish, but now there was a man-of-war to sail 
round the island and keep the shore. As a further confiraiation 
that the system of escape continues, I will here copy an article of 
session news, which I saw in the ^' Journal Officiel de Martinique, 
27 Novembre, 1839." " Par arrets du contumace. Les nommes, 
Joseph, esclave du Sieur Louis Marie, habitant aux Trois- Islets ; 
Jonas, esclave du Sieur de Vassoigne ; Elisee, esclave du Sieur Fer- 
dinand de Pelletier, accuses, 1°, d' avoir soustrait frauduleusement 
une pirogue, a I'aide de laquelle Us ont fui dans une colonie etran- 
gere ; 2^*, d' avoir, dans la nuit, penetre dans la maison du dit Louis 
Marie, et d'y avoir enleve les divers agres et apparaux de la dite 
pirogue, &c., ont ete condamnes a recevoir chacun 29 coups de 
fouet, et a cinq annees de chain de police." So that when they 
are caught, which we may hope they never will be, they are to 
receive twenty-nine lashes each, and to work five years in a chain- 
gang ! Another number of the same journal advertises six run- 
away slaves, caught in the act of decampment. 

I was told at St. Thomas' Town that fifty slaves had run away 
from that island to Tortola : some of the slaves escape to Do- 
minica, but more to St. Lucia ; and Captain Stuait, M^ho is now in 
Jamaica, — but I have not seen him, — told the captain of our mail- 
boat, that he had in his possession a piece of cork on which a slave 
floated from Mariegalant to Dominica, about sixty miles, exposed 
to sharks swimming around him, and that he was picked up, ex- 
hausted and senseless, on the shore. 

At Tortola I visited the national-school founded by the 
bishop of Barbadoes. Boys, girls, and infants are all instructed 
under one roof in a splendid room. A coloured master and mis- 
tress, a female superintendent, and an under-teacher were all in 
attendance; and groups of children, black, white, and browTi, 
mostly jet black, but classed without distinction of colour, were 
receiving instruction : the first class read remarkably well, and the 

B 2 



children altogether exhibited a liveliness and intelligence quite 
equal to what we see in England. The Wesleyans have three 
other schools in the island, which contains about 6000 inhabitants. 
Since the abolition of slavery about 600 of the labourers have emi- 
grated to Trinidad, to get higher wages, as Tortola, though a lovely 
island, is very poor, and the wages only about 5s. sterling per week. 
St. Thomas' Town abounds in stores well furnished with merchan- 
dize, and here the slavers come to purchase their horrid parapher- 
nalia for a new voyage. The port is free to all nations, and only one 
per cent, is demanded ad valorem on goods imported, as a duty to 
the Danish government: its merchants are prosperous and wealthy. 
The slaves of the Danish isles know that Governor Scholten is 
gone to Copenhagen, and they say that when he retm'ns he will 
bring out freedom : they will be much disappointed. One of the 
Santa Cruz planters told me that the English had done their best 
to injure them, and to abolish slavery, but they should have twenty 
years of it yet ! A French merchant of St. Thomas told me that 
he had recently bought land in Porto Rico, but no slaves, not be- 
cause he was averse to slavery, but because he was sure, from the 
present appearance of things, slavery must soon cease even in the 
Spanish colonies. This, however, is not the opinion of the planters 
generally in Porto Rico and Cuba, as they readily give 300 and 400 
dollars each for newly-imported slaves. 

At St. Thomas we changed om* quarters from the mail-boat 
to a new steamer man-of-war of 240-horse power, cariying six 
officers and seventy men, charged with the mails to Porto Rico, 
Hayti, Cuba, and Jamaica. Such a vessel, I suppose, never 
sailed in these seas before, and never before was such a voyage 
performed so expeditiously. The distance is more than 800 
miles, which we ran in four days and three hours, including 
all stops and detentions. The capital of Porto Rico is a 
large town and handsome, built at right angles, and beautifully 
paved : the inhabitants and garrison about 35,000. In walking 
through its streets in the evening I experienced the same stifling 
sensation in the atmosphere which we had felt before in Barbadoes 
and Tortola : it seemed as if exertion would kill me : I walked 
slowly and languidly, and was almost afraid to walk at all. The 
West Indies are now very sickly. In Barbadoes the troops are 
encamped, for the sake of health : we left three army-surgeons 
there who came out in the same packet. We had one case of yel- 
low-fever on board the steamer, and two others of beginning sick- 
ness. 

Port-Royal has lost within the year two surgeons and twelve 
assistant-surgeons, and a gi'cat many soldiei"s and sailors ; and 
the town of Kingston, where we now are, is very unhealthy. 
Samuel Oughton, one of the Baptist missionaries, tells me he has 
buried thirty persons of his congregation (a very large one, amount- 
ing to at least 4000,) besides many children w ithin the last six weeks. 



My dear wife and I are under no alarm ; we endeavour to put all 
our trust in Him who can restrain the sun from smiting by day, and 
the moon by night ; and though now and then a little cast down, 
and almost ready to doubt whether we can be of any service here, 
we have never lost sight of the impressions of duty which we felt 
to leave home, and which still attend us in the work we have 
entered upon. On landing at Cape Haytien we paid a visit to the 
British consul, who kindly offered to introduce me to the authori- 
ties, if it were my wish to stay or return to St. Domingo : he said 
they were extremely jealous of the least interference with their insti- 
tutions, but he was sure that no obstruction would be thrown in our 
way if our work was one of benevolence. If favoured with health 
to accomplish what we have in view in this island, it is my inten- 
tion to proceed to Hayti before we return to England. 

I was cautioned against opening my mouth in condemnation of" 
slaveiy and the slave-trade in Cuba ; a. fellow-passenger, a Peruvian, 
assured me that the Spaniard, when aroused to anger, was some- 
times ferocious, and a hasty word might cost me my life. We spent 
two hours in St. Jago, and on leaving it saw and heard things that 
were heart-aching. As we left the beautifid harbour, a rakish- 
looking schooner entered it under the guns of the fort : *' That ves- 
sel," said an officer on board, " is rigged for a slaver, and has proba- 
bly landed its cargo on the shore, and is going in to refit ;" and several 
persons on board stated that another slaver was lying in the har- 
bour, that landed 180 slaves six weeks ago. These things are talked 
of unblushingly in Cuba, and seem as common as the sun at noon- 
day. The people in this region talk and act precisely as if Chris- 
tianity had no existence, and as if there were no God to judge in 
the earth. They justify the slave-trade as our old slave-traders did 
in England before the abolition of the traffic. One man told me 
that many of the new slaves were so happy they would not return 
to Africa on any account ; another had the impudence to say, that 
they are sometimes so well treated on the middle-passage, that on 
leaving the vessel they will cling to the captain as they would to 
father and mother ! We have felt deeply and seriously for poor, 
injured Africa. When will that dark continent be enlightened, 
and the white man cease to be a man-stealer? when will "Ethiopia 
stretch out her hands unto God?" 

We reached Kingston on the 16th instant, and after two days 
of tarriance at one of the hotels, where board and lodging are extra- 
vagantly dear, we entered into hired apartments, and engaged a 
servant. Three of the missionaries have called on us, and kindly 
offered us assistance ; and we have already attended the examina- 
tion of two schools, on the plan of the British and Foreign School 
Society, about to break up for the " Christmas holiday," which is 
here observed by some of the sober blacks with devotion, but by 
great mmibers in dancing, music, and riots. The drums and dan- 
cing have already begun, and servants begin to leave their employ- 



6 

ment to join in^the round of merriment. I have begun my journal, 
from winch I intend to send extracts to the Committee from time to 
time. 



12tk 7/ionthj 20. — In the morning attended the examination of 
the children at the Independent chapel school, previous to its break- 
ing up for the winter holiday. This school is conducted by a 
coloured man, on the plan of the British and Foreign School So- 
ciety, and at the expense of the London Missionary Society. The 
number of scholars on the list exceeds one hundred, the average 
attendance seventy ; but owing to the sickness that prevails, the 
attendance on this occasion was smaller. Boys and girls are in- 
structed together, and black, white, and brown take their seats 
without distinction of coloui*. The school has been in opera- 
tion only two years, and many of the older children are just 
come to it fi*om other schools : they read and answered their 
school questions in grammar and geography pretty well, and are 
made to imderstand the meaning of words, but are far behind the 
Borough-road children in general knowledge. The scriptural 
examination was conducted by the children themselves : one child 
being taken out of a class, others are allowed to ask him questions 
relating to facts ; if he fail to answer, the child who puts the ques- 
tion takes his place, and becomes subject to the same sort of exami- 
nation. This plan, it is evident, excludes all instructions in doctrine, 
and unless extended by the master or visitors, is very meagre and in- 
efficient. Some of the black and brown girls came dressed in white 
muslin, with bands of roses in their hair, and with ear-rings and neck- 
laces. The children are expected to bring threepence, English 
money, per week for their schooling, but owing to a cause which I 
shall state presently, only about £24 per annum is received from 
this source. In the afternoon we visited Samuel Oughton's school, 
conducted like the former on the plan of the British and Foreign 
School Society. The master who had long had the management 
of it, left it about a year ago ; he received a salary of .£160 sterling 
per annum, but thought he could do better by keeping an academy 
of his own : the present master is not efficient, and a better one is 
expected soon from England. The number on the list exceeds 
300, including infants, who are taught separately, in a part of the 
chapel adjoining. The average attendance of larger children is 
140, but owing to the great sickness only 102 were present, almost 
all of them jet black, and veiy modestly and plainly attired. We 
examined all the classes, but cannot speak very favourably of their 
progress in learning. The sum received in threepences does not 
exceed £25 per annum. The infant-school mistress appears 
well qualified for her interesting duties. The Baptist chapel, to 
which this school is attached, will accommodate 2,500 persons, 



and is now in a course of enlargement, at the expense of the congre- 
gation, to hold 4,000 persons. The congregation, consisting chiefly 
of black people, pays the salary of the minister and all the expenses 
attendant on public worship, and has raised this year a sum of £70 
sterling towards sending out a missionary, ^vho is a coloured man, 
educated in Jamaica, to a station on the coast of Africa. 

12th month, 21. — Received a visit from , a stipendiary 

magistrate, a man of colour, who came to Kingston, he said, 
to find us out, and welcome us to Jamaica, his native island. He 
lives in the plain, about two miles off, and kindly invited us to his 
house, and promised to give us all the information in his power on 
the state of things here. 

12th month f 22. First day. — Maria and I sat down together at 
ten o'clock for the solemn purpose of divine worship. A full per- 
suasion attended my mind that we had done right in leaving home 
and coming to the West Indies ; and my prayers were fervent that 
we might find preservation, and be strengthened to perform our duty 
in the divine fear, looking to the Lord always for help, and attend- 
ing to the leadings and instructions of his Holy Spirit. At 

dinner-time received a call from , solicitor and member 

of the House of Assembly. I asked him if we could have access to 
the county jail ; he said he was going there at half-past three o'clock, 
and would conduct us. We found the prisoners seated in an 
open court on the debtors' side, and a Wesleyan minister, a coloured 
man, preaching to them on the duty of repentance. The number 
of men prisoners is exactly 100, and of women 15 ; the tried and 
untried are kept together, old and young, without the least classi- 
fication. The rooms allotted to the men are small and without 
ventilation, in each of which ten or more human beings are locked up 
at night, in danger of sickness and almost of suffocation. The women 
are better ofi^, having as much room altogether as the whole of the 
men. The day-yards are narrow and close, and swarmed with 
musquitoes. Some of the men are set to breaking stones, but the 
women have no occupation, and employ much of their time in 
quarrelling with each other. One young negress is sentenced to 
imprisonment for life for stealing a jackass ! This prison needs a 
thorough reformation. 

Received a visit from Edward Wallbridge, the excellent super- 
intendent of the Mico schools, which are a blessing to the whole 
colony. 

12^/i month, 24. and , special justices, called on us 

and staid several hours, conversing with us on the state of 
Jamaica, and assisting our inquiries. In the evening went 
to the committee of the Kingston Anti-Slavery Society, which 
was attended by W. W. Anderson, the chairman, one jet-black 
man, a magistrate of the city, two coloured men, three mis- 
sionaries, a large planter, the missionary superintendent, and 
myself. A subscription was ordered to be raised for the society in 



8 

London, and the chairman accepted the office of delegate to the 
convention to be held there in the 6th month next. A resolution 
was unanimously agreed to, " That as entire freedom now exists in 
Jamaica, an immigration of free black and coloured labourers 
and others, from the United States of America, would be attended 
with advantage to all parties/' , missionary of the Lon- 
don Society, kindly offered to take me to-morrow to a station 
on the mountains, to which he was going to perform religious ser- 
vice. With a feeling of fear lest I should give offence, but veiy 
respectfully, I declined the invitation, stating my reasons for doing 
so. He assented to my views, and then offered to take me over at 
some future time on secular sei-vice, to inspect the settlement, and 
to call on the proprietor who gave him the ground for building a 
chapel and school-room. 

12th month, 25. — Held our week-day meeting to comfort. Dined 
at Samuel Oughton's with a party of Christian friends, and in the 
evening witnessed the ceremony of a marriage between two black 
people in his chapel. 

12th month, 26. — Went over to Spanish Town, where we spent 

the day, and were hospitably entertained at the house of ^ 

and lodged there. Called on the custos of the parish, after- 
wards on , and on , who is in office under the govern- 
ment, a coloured man, of very enlightened and superior mind, 
who gave me much information, and placed in my hands some 
printed returns made to the House of Assembly, which are yery 
useful to me. 

12th month,2!7. — Returned to Kingston : stopped at the ferry-house, 
and visited the numerous huts of a negro village, embowered in cocoa- 
nut trees, by the road-side. These habitations are of very poc«* 
construction, wattled and thatched with palmetto leaves, consisting 
of two small rooms : the cost of erection probably about £15 ster- 
ling each. It was holiday-week, and almost all the inmates were 
at home : the prevailing fever was in many of the houses ; several 
children and two adults were sick; and a poor woman, with elephan- 
tiasis, was walking about, her foot of enormous dimensions, — a 
shocking spectacle. All the houses we entered were furnished with 
a bed, a table, and some crockeiy-ware ; and attached to the village, 
raised by subscription among the poor people themselves, is a »mall 
chapel, where one of their own number, a Baptist leader, addresses 
them on religious subjects twice a week : on a first-day they walk 
to Spanish Town, six miles, to attend public worship. The follow- 
ing wages are paid on the neighbouring estates. For a day's 
labour on the road or in the fields, from six to four o'clock, 20d. 
currency, or Is. sterling : for a day's labour in river or ditch-work, 
twice that sum, or 2s. per day. Boys and infirm old men for 
tending cattle, a dollar per week. Rent for cottage and provision- 
ground, 3s. sterhng per week. Thus a man and his wife, if both 
of then^, work at common labour, may earn in five days 10s., which 



9 

sum, deducting rent, leaves them 7s. a-week clear, with a whole day 
for their own ground, which, though very poor, probably produces 
yams and plantains almost enough for the subsistence of their 
family ! We endeavoured to show them how well they were off: 
they acknowledged it, said they were very thankful for freedom, and 
hoped, with the blessing of God's providence, they should do well. 
Most of the occupiers of these huts were married, but not all ; and 
we spoke to them seriously on the duty of marriage, and on the 
necessity of giving their children a good education. There is a 
dignity in the carriage of the young negro men and women that is 
quite striking to a stranger : no servility, no fawning, not a single 
ti-ace of a late existing system of slavery. 

12th month, 28. — Attended the petty sessions of the city of 
Kingston. Some of the worst features of the negro are exhibited 
in these couits, and the character of the common people, such of 
them as are idle, ignorant, and vicious, may be studied here better 
perhaps than anywhere else. Called on , the intelligent mas- 
ter of Woolmere free-school, and obtained from him the educa- 
tional statistics of Kingston, compiled carefully by himself, some 
of which I hope soon to put to the test, by actual observation. 

\2th month, 29. First-day. — Comforted in our sitting this morn- 
ing with the renewed belief that we have done right in coming to 
the West Indies, and that Jamaica is our proper field of la- 
bour. In the afternoon went with our excellent friend , 

in his carriage, to the city hospital. This asylum will hold sixty 
persons, but contains at this time only thirty-six, three or four of 
whom are idiots or deranged, and will probably never quit it till 
they die. The convalescent patients, twenty-eight in number, were 

collected, and read to them a portion of Luke's Gospel, 

which he explained in a plain, practical manner, suited to their 
apprehensions, and offered up a devotional prayer. We then 
went the second time to the county jail. I thought it right to 
offer to take the station, occasionally to read a portion of Scrip- 
ture with the liberty of addressing the prisoners or not as I might 
feel disposed by a sense of religious duty, and expect sometimes to 
be so engaged. Distributed this day a variety of religious tracts, 
chiefly of the Friends' Tract Society. Some persons came to 
solicit tracts. Am glad to find that our distribution of these 
Tracts has produced some effect. 

\2th month, 30. — Employed in reading a back file of Jamaica 
newspapers — drudgery work, but needful, — and in looking through 
the Acts of Assembly passed in the present session. 

\2th month, 31. — Rode to Half-way-tree, to attend the weekly 
sessions. 

1840. \st month, 1. — Called on , Wesleyan missionaiy, 

and found at his house a brother missionary about to proceed 
to Hayti to labour in that island ; for whom I have selected a 
number of religious tracts in the French and Spanish languages. 



10 

some peace tracts in French, a few English tracts from the 
Friends' Tract Society, and four of the bound vohimes in 
French. ■, a local magistrate of and a large coffee- 
planter called on us, a pro-slavery and rather complaining 
man. One of his colfee -estates last year left him minus <£300 
currency. I asked him if all his estates taken together had occa- 
sioned him loss. He could not say they had : the crop on the one 
he had spoken of had failed. He did not approve the doings of the 
abolitionists : he had suffered too much by them, but he believed 
there was no peasantry in the world that would have passed so 
peaceably and with so little trouble to the masters, from slavery to 
freedom, as the negro population of the West Indies. There had 
been much fault on both sides ; the masters had been iriitated at 
the loss of power, and were often unreasonable, and the labourers 
were determined only to work for wages that must ruin them. He 
thought, however, things would yet work well, and invited us to pay 
him a visit at his house and in the mountains. 

1st monthy 3. — Visited the hospital, which is under the direction 
of the corporation of Kingston, but supported out of the island 
treasury. The number of patients 260, of whom 80 are lunatics. 
The wards of the hospital clean and well ventilated, and the sick 
w^omen apparently well attended to by the matron. The greater 
part of the patients are men and boys, many of them seamen, who 
lead a licentious life, and drink to excess, and who, by sleeping on 
deck in the open air, imbibe the night-dews, and fall sick of fever. 
Twenty-five persons have died in the men's fever-ward during the 
last month, some of whom, we understand, were brought in at the 
last extremity, and died, and were buried, without their names being 
known. The wards are crowded with the sick, and more room is 
much wanted. Many lunatics of the milder class are mixed with 
the sick, for want of accommodation in what they call the asylum, 
w]iich forms part of the establishment, but is separated from it by 
the public road, and defended by a high wall. This asylum con- 
tains fifty patients, and besides being a veiy unfit receptacle for 
the insane, is dreadfully mismanaged. The buildings consist of 
two suites of rooms, barricaded with iron gratings, having cold 
stone-floors; several of the rooms without beds, or even a deal 
board to lie down upon, and very offensive for want of ventilation. 
Two men patients, said to be violent, were confined in solitary 
apartments in the stocks, and two women, kept together in a room 
by themselves, were entirely naked. My wife did not wish to visit 
this wretched prison with me, and as I came on the keeper un- 
awares, (there was only one keeper in attendance, and the rooms 
bolted,) he had no time to close the gratings, so that nothing was 
concealed. I have visited several mad-houses, but never saw or 
formed a conception of one in which misery and neglect so cruelly 
predominate. Several lunatics are often put into one ward, and 
for want of inspection to restrain, and having notliing to do, and 



11 

only a few feet of ground to pace upon, tliey quarrel and fight. 
One man has been killed in the night by his companions, and 
others dreadfully beaten. 

1st monthj 4. — Sold a number of books for distribution. Joseph 
Wheeler, the agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, took 
tea with us, with whom we had much interesting conversation on 
the state of Hayti. 

1st month y 5. Firet-day. — Our usual meeting at home in the 

morning. In the afternoon, accompanied by and , attended 

the county jail. Having felt for some days past an impression 
of duty to address the prisoners, I consented to have it stated by 
the latter that a friend from England was present, and had some- 
thing to say to them. It was my intention to have read a portion 

of Scripture, but as this had been done previously by , who had 

also made some useful remarks on what he read, I proceeded at once 
to the matter which pressed on my mind, and was favoured, I trust, 
with divine help, to relieve myself of the burden. I expressed the 
sympathy we felt for them, shut up as they were within the walls of 
a narrow prison, as real or supposed criminals, spoke of the indig- 
nation of a just and righteous God against sin, and enforced the ne- 
cessity of repentance and faith ; that without these there could be 
no deliverance from the power of Satan and a sinful life, and no 
hope of divine favour. I endeavoured to show them that the door 
of divine mercy was open to the poor repenting sinner, that Christ 
had died for all men, and that God was willing to bestow free par- 
don on all who truly repented, and reverently sought forgiveness 
in the Saviour's name, instancing the thief on the cross, as a proof 
of divine love and mercy made wonderfully manifest even at the 
eleventh hour. Some of the prisoners wept, and one of them 
entreated me to visit them again, saying, they had no retirement 
in the prison j and if they wished to cherish good thoughts, they 
found it impossible to do so because of wicked people about them. 
I left the prison with a thankftil heart and a peaceful mind. 

1st month, 6. — Attended a committee of the Kingston Bible 
Society : a great demand for good Bibles in Jamaica, at the full 
cost price, among the newly-free people. 

1st month, 7. — Having found a capable intelligent negro, lately 
a gang-slave, I engaged him, during his spare hours, as a colpor- 
teur to sell some of the religious books confided to my care, agree- 
ing to allow him 26 per cent, on the amount of sales. Spent the 
morning in examining some of the book-stores in Kingston, and 
making inquiiy as to public and school libraries. (On the state of 
education, reading, and libraries in this city, I intend to send a 
separate and distinct report when we have visited and examined all 
the schools.) In the afternoon rode out with a friend to call on a 
missionary and his wife, lately arrived from the Oberlin Institute, 
and settled at the foot of the Port-Royal mountains. This day a 
slaver, captured by the Cleopatra man-of-war, was brought into 



1-2 

Kingston harbour, with 280 slaves on board; but owing to the 
smallpox on board, was placed under strict quarantine. I would 
gladly have gone immediately to inspect it, but found it quite im- 
possible to gain permission, unless I would consent to remain on 
board till the medical officer should pronounce the vessel clean. 

l5^ month, 8. — One of the Baptist missionaries, having in- 
vited the deacons of his chapel, twenty-six in number, all black 
men, or nearly black, to dine with him, my wife and I went as 
spectators to the feast. They came at six o'clock, after the toils 
of the day were over, dressed like gentlemen, all wearing a good 
cloth coat, and some of them with a cane. Their behaviour 
would have done credit to a company of merchants and tradesmen 
of the first class in England : they took but little wine, and with 
much politeness of manner, and observed great decorum. It was 
astonishing to us that men, many of whom had been slaves, could 
so soon have been drilled, not only into the decencies of life, but 
into an actual refinement of manners, that might put common Eng- 
lish dinner-parties to the blush. After dinner, and during the 
dessert, several of them delivered short addresses, and one of them, 
who, in his boyhood, had been dragged from the coast of AfHca, 
spoke touchingly : he said he felt now the value of the Gospel, and 
thought much of his native land, and hoped that measures would 
be taken to send the Gospel there. A hymn being then sung, and 
a prayer offered, the company departed. My wife attended the 
first committee of the Kingston Ladies' Bible Society to day. 

\st month, 9. — This morning at seven o'clock went with 

first to the county jail, where we looked into the prison- 
yard : the prisoners having just left their night-cells, were dressing 
in the piazza to be ready for work : an effluvia from these cells 
reached the spot where we stood, and seemed to taint the whole 
air. We then walked to the House of Correction, about a mile 
further on : at a new church, which is in course of building, we 
found a gang of prisoners heavily ironed, working as bricklayers' 
labourers, under an overseer. A ring of iron was riveted above 
the ancle on the right leg, to which was attached an iron bar, 
projecting from the heel part, so that the prisoner, in walking, 
had to lift it at eveiy step. The least weight of these irons was 
7f lbs., and some weighed probably 10 lbs. The poor fellows com- 
plained to us of their hard treatment, and with great reason. A 
few weeks ago, one of the Kingston magistrates, a black man, 
ordered these fetters to be taken off"; soon after which, a prisoner 
having escaped, another magistrate, a coloured man, ordered 
them to be put on again, as if there were no possible me- 
dium between heavy and cruel fetters, and no restraint at all ! 
The House of Correction is an exceedingly insecure prison, so 
that the temptation to break out is constantly before the prisoners : 
this fault applies to other Jamaica prisons ; but instead of remedy- 
ing the defect, by giving them better walls, the legislature has re- 



13 

cehtly passed an act (1 Victoria) making the offence of breaking 
out, a felony, punishable the first time with three years' imprison- 
ment, the second time with death, and five men are now in prison 
convicted under the statute, two of them for the second offence. 
The total number of prisoners is 85 men, 4 women. The men are 
kept employed in breaking stones, the women in washing. The 
prison-yard is spacious and clean, and in the middle of it stands a 
building, erected for the cruel tread-mill, now no longer in use. 
One of the sleeping-rooms, 28 feet by 11, is made sometimes to 
hold 30 persons, and at the present time 24 persons lodge in it : 
the turnkey told me he hardly knew how to open the door in the 
morning ; the stench was insupportable. The present governor is 
about to break up the tread-mills, and appropriate the buildings in 
which they stand to some good and lawful use ; so that this prison, 
with others, is likely soon to have better accommodations. The 
diet of the prison appears to be good and sufficient ; and a chap- 
lain reads prayers once in the week, sometimes adding a sermon. 
Having felt a religious concern to visit the prisoners on some first- 
day afternoon, I asked leave of one of the city aldermen, who 
kindly agreed to my doing so next first-day at four o'clock. 

Received a call from a man named , and had much conver- 
sation with him as to the rate of wages in the district where he 
works, and the means of the people to live, and lay by money : 
his narrative was a candid and curious one, and deserves notice. 
He received Is. English per day, at picking coffee ; his wife the 
same, and one of his children 2s. 6d. per week, which latter 
sum was enough to pay the rent of hut and provision-ground. 
If he worked hard at picking coffee by the bushel, from four 
in the morning to sun-down, he could earn Is. 6d. per day; 
but his common wages were Is. per day, which, with those of his 
wife and child, left him 10s. per week, clear of rent, and one day 
to himself to cultivate his ground, which being small and scarcely 
yielded them " bread-kind" enough for only half the year. He 
had, however, always plenty of money to buy what more of provi- 
sion he wanted for his family, seven in number, and to provide 
clothing, and to lay by something. I asked him how much money 
he had in hand ? he said, money was scant now ; he had only four 
dollars. What I have here stated, as to wages, will apply 
pretty generally to the whole island, that is, Is. sterling per day to 
common labourers, both men and women ; in some places Is. 3d. ; 
task-work, about Is. 6d. per day, but often it rises to half a dollar ; 
children, 2s. 6d. per week ; boys and old men, a dollar a w^eek, and 
labour of all sorts in great demand ; so that where the people are 
industrious, and no oppressions are practised, they have ample op- 
portunity of doing well : tlieh' provision-grounds are a great help 
to them, and wages have a tendency to rise, being only kept down 
by the combination of the masters. There is probably no peasantry 
in Europe so well off, in regard to the supply of mere physical 



14 

wants, as the labourers of Jamaica, or whose prospects of continu- 
ing to do well are so good ; but their friends in England must stand 
by them, and watch for them, or the tide will be turned back : op- 
pressions will be renewed, and disorders ensue. Marriages are 
happily beginning to be very common, and it is thought a disgrace 
to live otherwise than in honourable married life; and young 
people, many of them, are saving their earnings to buy furniture 
for a cottage ; but nothing seems likely for a long time to come to 
conquer their passion for extravagant dress. Attended the ses- 
sions court, and heard a case of alleged assault, in which the 
parties appear to have abused each other with the most oppro- 
brious epithets : the sin of an uncurbed tongue is a veiy prevailing 
one, and occasions much of the work which the magistrates have 
to do. 

Received a visit from , a magistrate, and one of the 

members of the House of Assembly, who communicated to us 
the following information as to legal provision for the poor and 
destitute of Kingston. There is an hospital for the sick and ex- 
tremely destitute, which I described in a former letter. The popu- 
lation of the city is about 4o,000. The out-pensioners who receive 
weekly aid from the city-purse vary from one to two hundred : 
some receive from Is. 6d. to 2s. sterling per week; others, a less 
numerous class, from 3s. to 4s., some as much as 8s., and one 
family, once in good circumstances, 16s. per week. The sum of 
^1,800 sterling per annum is thus expended on the city poor. The 
salary of the relieving officer is ,£40 per annum, and that of a me- 
dical man to attend these poor at their own houses, .£180 per 
annum. The pensioners, when sick, often prefer to be sent to the 
hospital for the sake of better nursing and diet, but those who do 
so are extremely poor. All applications for relief are made to the 
town-coimcil, and referred to an out-pensioners' committee, which, 
as now composed, acts on the mercenary principle, that the fewer 
its meetings, the greater the saving. The hearing of applications 
has been sometimes delayed for more than six months, and it has 
often happened, that in the meanwhile the parties making appli- 
cation have died, perhaps from starvation ; and, in these cases, no 
coroner's inquests are held. The common-council have lately 
voted £5,000 currency to build a theatre, and £1,000 for a Jews' 
synagogue, but think the city too poor to increase the funds for 
relief of the destitute ! On the subject of orphan children I shall 
reserve all comment till I send you the statistics of education. 

l5^ month, 12. Fii*st-day. — Morning meeting at home as usual. 
In the afternoon visited the house of correction : three of the city 
magistrates attended, wi^h many other persons. After reading a 
portion of John's Gospel, I felt a concern to addi*ess the prisoners, 
which I did, showing them, according to the apostle's doctrine, 
that the powers that be are ordained of God, and that magistrates 
hold not the sword of authority in vain ; expressing sympathy for 



15 

them as criminals who had violated the laws, and directing them 
to the gospel of Christ, received by faith, as the remedy and cure 
of all our spiritual maladies. I entreated them also to bear their 
privations and sufferings patiently, and to look humbly to the Al- 
mighty for forgiveness, and the help of the Holy Spirit to do his 
will. Having relieved my mind in exhortation, I requested a 
short time of silence, and the opportunity closing with prayer, we 
separated. One of the magistrates present requested me to visit 
the prison as often as I could ; the superintendent offering cheer- 
fully to collect them together at any time. My wife could not go 
with me on this occasion, as the weather was sultry and the walk 
long, and we have at present no carriage of any kind, but intend 
soon to procure one. One of the prisoners was a Chelmsford man 
— a soldier, put in confinement for drunkenness. I gave religious 
tracts to the few who could read. 

1st monthj 15. — Visited the lunatic-asylum a second time. One 
man and one woman entirely naked, and many others nearly so. 
There being but one keeper, night and day, for the whole asylum, 
and he sometimes necessarily absent from the place, the poor 
wretches are exposed to the vulgar gaze of such casual passers-by 
as are induced, from their loud noises, to look in upon them. 
Visited the western branch of the National City Schools, which 
had lately gone to decay, and which they are now striving to 
reorganise. Number on the list, 294. Largest attendance for a 
long time past, 126. Present number in the school, 84. Looked 
out a present of books for Woolmer free-school library, and the 
library of the Mico normal school. Glad to find from my colporteur 
that several copies of the gospel of John have been bought by 
Jews, and that the Spanish tracts sell. There is a temperance 
society here, and some firm and discreet tee-totallers : when my 
temperance tracts arrive, they will be in great demand, and proba- 
bly prove very useful. Temperance and tee-totalism are much the 
subject of conversation. 

\st month 18. — We rose early, and attended by , set 

out in a four-wheeled carriage, and a pair of small Jamaica 
horses, by moonlight. A servant foUow^ed on horseback, lead- 
ing another horse with a side-saddle for Maria. The constel- 
lation of the southern cross, which impressed the first discoverei-s 
of America wdth so much awe, was shining brilliantly, and the air 
was pleasantly cool. We passed over Stoney Hill, said to be 
2000 feet high, about half-past seven o'clock, and then began 
slightly to descend : the carriage seemed to be strong, but the roads 
here are wretchedly rough, and often deep with gullies, and in 
going through a brook the spring broke ; a sugar-plantation was 
near at hand, and we ordered the driver to lead the horses to the 
overseer's house : here we were well received, and left the carriage 
to be repaired, and began the second part of our mountain-ascent 
on horseback, leaving one of the servants to follow on foot. We 



10 

stopt at tlic house of a medical man by the road-side to breakfast, 
at about the spot where the road begins to be veiy narrow, and 
where only horses, mules, and asses can travel : the precipices by the 
sides of the narrow passes are often very steep, but the horses of the 
country are trained to avoid danger, and an accident seldom hap- 
pens. The region we passed through was very lovely, mountain- 
ous all around us, and covered with fruit and forest-trees in full 
leaf and summer beauty, among which were orange-trees, loaded 
with ripe fruit, the bread-fruit in full bearing, the cocoa-nut, cab- 
bage-palm, banana, cotton-tree and mangoe, with many large 
groups of the beautiful bamboo, which is a very light and elegant 
tree, waving high in the air, and bending like a plume of ostrich 
feathers. At two o'clock p.m. we reached Scots-hall, one of the 
Mico school-stations, and received a cordial Christian welcome 

from , the master and mistress, with whom we have stayed 

four days. The school-house stands on the side of a mountain, 
and looks down on a Negi'o town in one of the valleys below, 
where, in thirty-four cabins, about two hundred of the Ma- 
roons reside. The Maroons, both in this and at other stations, were 
always free, kept in the pay of the planters, employed to hunt up 
the runaway Negroes, and governed by a superintendent, under 
laws of their own : they were represented to us as having been, 
till lately, a fierce, cruel tribe, and sincere haters of all who were 
born slaves, with whom as such they would allow of no intermar- 
riages. I had often thought of these people before we left England, 
w ith the hope of visiting all their stations, and was glad of the op- 
portunity of coming on this occasion to meet them here. They 
are now becoming civilized, have built themselves a chapel and 
send their children to school ; and the Baptist minister, who comes 
over from a neighbouring mountain to preach to them, has per- 
suaded many of them to leave ofi* rum and to become tee-totallers. 
There is absolutely a tee-total society here in the heart of the 
mountains, and some quarrelsome drunkards have become re- 
formed ! The superintendent of the station, who seems to be a 
religious man, spent the evening with us. ^ 

1st monthy 19. First Day. — This morning, as we sat at break- 
fast, a large bell attached to the premises began to toll, and quite 
startled us with its sound, which may be heard distinctly among 
the valleys five miles off". 

There is often much rain in the mountains, when the plains below 
are parched and dusty ; it proved so here ; the rain poured down 
nearly all the day, but many of the sabbath-school children came 
notwithstanding; and at twelve o'clock, the hour for religious teach- 
ing, the congregation of children and adults was about eighty in 

number ; it often amounts to two hundred. is a man of an 

excellent spirit, peculiarly qualified for the arduous and important 
tmst confided to him, and in addition to his ordinary duties as a 
superintendent, devotes much time to giving religious instruction 



17 

to tlie black people in the very way and manner most likely to be 
useful to them. On this occasion he gave out a hymn, and after 
engaging in prayer, read portions of Scripture, which he accom- 
panied with an easy, familiar explanation, interspersing what he 
said with remarks of a practical and devotional nature, calculated 
to fix on the consciences of his hearers. He then inquired of me 
whether it was rhj wish to speiik, which not feeling it to be my 
duty to do at that time I declined. 

A meeting was to be held in due course at the Maroon chapel at 
five o'clock : to this place at that hour we bent our way, and met a 
small company of about forty men and women, seemingly devout peo- 
ple. After a hymn had been given out, a poor black man Imeeled 
down and prayed, with much simplicity of word and manner, that all 
our sins might be forgiven for Christ's sake, that the Holy Spirit might 
rest on us, and the dry bones live, and that the Word, whether preached 
or read, might sink into the hearts of all present, and prove a blessing. 
I now believed it my place to address the congi'egation, which I 
did. It was a time to me of enlargement of heart and gospel liberty, 
and I was enabled to discharge my duty among them, and to sit down 
under a grateful sense of divine mercy manifested towards us. After 
a short silence I engaged in prayer, and the meeting separated. It 
seemed to be my duty on this occasion to warn the people against 
placing their dependence on a stated ministry and the observance of 
religious forms, as though religion consisted in these things, and to 
direct them to the spirit of Christ, which can alone enlighten and sanc- 
tify the heart, and without which no man can truly call Jesus Lord, 
or become a partaker of the heavenly calling. The sun had just 
set as we left the chapel, and we returned home amidst the croak- 
ing of frogs, the loud chirping of crickets, and the fireflies' light. 
The fireflies were numerous and brilliant. Many of the children 
that attend this school lodge on the premises, and bring their weekly 
food with them, or have it sent, as their homes are perhaps eight 
or ten miles off". Some of these came in to read the Scriptures to 
us before we retired to rest, and one of them only six years old, a 
jet-black boy about £J|^igh as the table, read remarkably well ; 
but I must observe, ^P going along, that the country children 
are not, generally speaking, so intelligent as those of Kingston, 
where the parents have become sharpened by the collisions of ac- 
tive life. 

1st month, 20. Second day. — A very wet day; kept within- 
doors, examined the school, and passed the time in reading and 
writing. Number of children on the fist, 188 ; average attendance, 
140. Weekly lodgers, who bring their food, which is cooked on the 
premises, 34. 

\st month f 21. — Walked to the Maroon town and paid a visit 
to the superintendent. ^ 

Ist month, 22. — Left our kind and hospitable friends at Scots- 
hall. 



18 

\st month, 25.— I must now continue my narrative. A few 
miles from Scots-hall, we passed though a new defile among the 
hills to Mount Charles, on a visit to a Baptist missionaiy, whose 
house stands very high, and commands a wide and lovely mountain 
prospect. One of the Oberlin students, now a missionary in 
this neighbourhood, and a Mico schoolmaster met us at dinner. 
The island of Jamaica is very unequally dividdd as to schools 
and missions; some parts are well supplied with both, but 
there are districts abounding in population where no instruction 
is given; and I have heard of one parish in particular, from 
which several black people were summoned to give evidence 
in court, and three of the number knew nothing of Jesus Christ, 
and appeared to have no idea of a God. Many people, fifty years 
old and upwards, were stolen from Africa, which they remember 
very well, and know their nation, and speak a few words of their 
native language, calling themselves Mandingoes, Eboes, or Congo- 
men, but know very little of the Christian religion ; and having 
been so long barbarised by slavery, are very slow to learn : their 
children also partake in some degree of the same dullness, from the 
same unhappy cause. The generation lately born, and now springing 
up, have more intelligence; and the whole race, under good instruction, 
will soon rival European intellect, and I hope excel them in piety. 

In this mountain-district there are several schools within a 
short distance from each other, and several stations visited by the 
missionaries ; and the thought of the advantages which the people 
hereabout enjoy has many times made the tears to start in my eyes. 
The missionaries and schoolmasters, especially the Mico school- 
masters, are a blessing to the Negro population, who are in general 
anxious to learn, and whose character and habits of mind are si- 
lently undergoing a great change. Their mode of conveying reli- 
gious instruction in the school-houses is peculiarly adapted to the 
condition of the people, who are at present but as little children. 
" Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to 
undei-stand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and 
drawn from the breasts. For precept musy|||||upon precept, precept 
upon precept; line upon line, line uponfRe; here a little, and 
there a little ;" and in this way, under a s^e of religious duty, in 
a patient manner, are many disinterested, zealous men disposed to 
labour. I should have mentioned that the poor black man who 
prayed in the Maroon chapel has given decisive proof of his 
change of heart, by having some years a^o mamed the mother of 
his children, with whom he had lived unlawfully, who was once a 
slave, and thus drawn down on himself the anger and indignation of 
his brother Maroons, and by having also maintained a solid, consistent 
character ever since. We are forced to be very careful in judging 
of men and women by the professions they make. The Negroes con- 
sider it reputable to seem religious, and many among them have acted 
the part too well, so as to deceive those who watch them narrowh'. 



19 

On leaving the mountains to return to Kingston, we found a great 
difference in climate : at Scots-hall and Mount Charles the ther- 
mometer at ten o'clock a.m. was only 66°; in the plain of 
Kingston it stands at 80° and 82° : in the mountains we can wear 
woollen clothing, and sleep under a counterpane without musquito- 
curtains, which we count a great treat ; in Kingston we dress in 
white linen or nankeen, and in moving about have an almost con- 
stant sense of weariness. It would be delightful to live in the 
mountains, except for the rains, which are very abundant, and often 
prevent going out of doors for several days together. 

On 7th day morning, a planter from the mountains in district, 

about 25 miles from the place, was introduced to us by a friend, who 
came to solicit us to pay him a visit, and try to reconcile his labour- 
ers to work for him on his coffee-grounds : we have accepted liis 
invitation, and intend to proceed there on fourth-day evening, on 
horseback, lodging at the foot of the mountains by the way ; he 
sends his servant to Kingston to conduct us and carry our clothing. 
Our next contemplated journey is to the emigrant settlement at 
Altamont, where the emigrants (Europeans) have nearly all died, 
leaving widows and children in a starving state. 

1st month, 27. — Yesterday afternoon (first-day), attended by two 
of the magistrates, we paid a second visit to the prisoners, now 
92 in number, in the house of correction. I read to them, as before, 
a portion of the Gospel of John, and afterwards addressed them 
at large on several points of Christian doctrine and duty, to the 
reUef of my mind. 

1st month, 29. — Set out this afternoon on horseback for a tour 
among the mountains in St. George's district, at the request 

of , a coffee-planter at , who wished me to try to reconcile 

his labourers to work for him, as his coffee, to a great extent, was 
rotting on the ground, for want of hands to gather it. 

l5^ month J 31. — Left early this morning, attended by a guide, 
over a steep mountain-pass, in many parts, for a short distance, as 
steep as the roof of a house, and very rough and rugged, to Mount 
Lebanon, the seat of -»-, a magistrate and extensive planter. His 
dwelling is about 3-^W feet above the level of the sea. Clifton- 
house, another plantation, rises before it to the height of 4228 
feet ; and St. Catherine Peak still higher, about 5000 feet. The 
Blue Mountains, generally topped with clouds, form a boundary 
to the east, beyond the River Fallahs, which runs below, and 
reach the extraordinary elevation of 1780 feet. Such a scene 
for magnificence and beauty we had never before witnessed, and 
were much delighted with it. The prospects around us were the 
more delightful, as the hills were clothed with fine patches of 
coffee in high cultivation, and with woods and vegetation to their 
very summits. The air in these mountains is deliciously cool and 
healthy, the thermometer ranging from 60° to 66° ; and at night, 
with a strong breeze, is almost too cool. We were expected to 

c 2 



20 

breakfast, and met the planters at the breakfast-table, who all gave 
us a hearty welcome ; and when our meal was done, set out again, 

attended by , who had come here to meet us. This estate 

consists of 1100 acres, 230 of which are in coffee, and is 

said to be the finest coffee-property in . We found it in 

a state of confusion, master complaining of men, and men of their 
master ; and strangers from other plantations at work upon it for 
higher wages than are commonly given, in order to secure produce 
which would otherwise fail. Having heard the statement of the 
proprietor against his people, we went to their village, which is near 
the great house and part of the property, and paid them a family visit. 
They swarmed about us like bees. I told them we came from Eng- 
land as friends of the black people, to see how things were going on in 
Jamaica, and were sorry to hear they could not agree with their 
master, and refused to work for him. How was it they acted so ? 
Several voices together, the women vociferous : " Massa no good 
at all. Can't agree with him. Charge every one of us rent that live 
in the house. Come in and look. The rain comes through ; can't 
sleep in our beds. Charge we rent for these places ; and if we don't 
work five days in the week, charge us a dollar over, and send a con- 
stable to call us to . We go to , (ten miles off, over the 

mountains,) and when we get there, massa no there, or magistrate 
sick, we must come again." And so on, with more complaints than 
I can enumerate. The truth is this, , who seems a kind- 
hearted man, is imbued with the strong prejudices that belong to 
his class. He has a large estate, with a hundred and twenty people 
upon it, fifty of them effective labourers ; quite sufficient, if they 
could be prevailed on to put out their strength, to do all his 
work and keep his plantations in fine order. The Negroes, now 
they have got freedom, like to show that they have it, and cannot bear 
to be told, that if they want a day to themselves they must ask 
their master to let them have it. They wish to work and to in- 
termit work as they please, and think they have a right to do so. 
This we know is perplexing to the master ; but the Negroes, with 
all their shrewdness, have much of the child^out them, and need to 
be humoured. How does the master go to work to secure his object 
of continuous labour? He allows his people provision-grounds, 
and one day in the week to cultivate them and take the produce 
to market; and charges every adult of a family Is., and every 
young person capable of labour 6d. per week, as rent for hut 
and provision-grounds combined. A common day's wages, be it 
femembered, is on the same scale of Is. to an adult, 6d. to a 
boy or girl ; so that he expects them all to give him one day in 
the week as payment for rent. This system bears very unfairly on 
large families, and is sometimes modified in practice ; but unfair 
as it is, and exorbitant,' as the rent by this means sometimes 
amounts to, in the case of father, mother, and three children, 
3s. 6d. per week, or ^9. 2s. sterling per annum, for liut and 



21 

ground, worth very little more in fee simple, it would be generally 
submitted to, for necessity's sake, if it stood alone. But the master, 
acting under the direction and by the example of numerous 
brother planters, says, in addition, " You shall work for me five 
consecutive days in every week, at the wages specified ; and if you 
choose to leave my service on any one day, whoever does so, I 
will charge him a dollar a week for rent, instead of a macaroni." 
He makes his power, as a landlord, the means both of coercing wages 
and compelling labour ; and this the Negro resents and kicks at 
as unjust. The master summons him before the magistrate for 
this dollar, as a simple debt, if he intermits his daily service for a 
day or two, without leave ; and the local magistrates, who are 
often the majority of the court, give judgment against the labourer 
with costs ! Such is the state of things in the coffee-plantation 

district of ; and it w as to heal a division arising from this 

state of things, that a well-meaning planter solicited my inter- 
ference. Instead of reasoning with his labourers and reproving 
theniy as he had hoped I should do, it was my painful duty to re- 
monstrate with him, and to tell him, in the presence of several 
planters who met us at his house, that the whole system was un- 
just, from the beginning to the end, and would certainly break 
down under him ; that if persevered in, his people would leave the 
property altogether ; that he would be dependent on the help of 
labourers from other properties, at an advanced rate of wages, as he 
was at that moment, and be himself the victim of heart-burnings 
and contention. The individual in question was exceedingly 
kind to us, very hospitable, and very attentive to our wishes and 
wants. 

About a mile off, on the other side of the river, which runs through 
his property, is a station of the Church Missionary Society, with a 
new chapel and school-house, and as J. F. Sessing, the pastor, a 
German, had come to askus to spend the first day with him, we set out 
early in the morning to do so. He and his excellent wife were first sent 
to Sierra Leone, where, and in Monrovia, they had laboured some years, 
and spoke with much affection of Haimah Kilham, whose memory 
was dear to them, and whose Memoir they were then reading. They 
received us with much Christian kindness, gave up the use of their 
study when they w^ent to chapel, and treated us with the cordiality 
of old friends. Communion with such people was quite refreshing 
to us. In the evening we re-crossed the river, to meet the people of 
the Negro village in their own little chapel, for almost every village 
seems to have a chapel or preaching-house of its own, and found 
a few of them, with their leader, singing texts of Scripture, such as 
the leader's memory could furnish. They made a loud noise, any- 
thing but harmonious, and seemed to have very little of devotional 
feeling. They profess to be Baptists, in alliance or connexion 
with a black Baptist teacher at Kingston, which city, twenty-five 
miles ofi", they sometimes visit ; and after paying their money to 



22 

wards the support of himself and the chapel, receive a ticket of 
continued membershipj which they seem highly to value. They 
are in a very dark state of mind, living, many of them, according 
to their own confession, in a very immoral manner ; but this is no 
hindrance to church-membership, if the leader choose to recom- 
mend them as candidates for baptism. One of the texts which 
they said or sung, and which struck my ear more forcibly than any 
of the rest, was, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; 
but he that believeth not shall be damned." Soon after which a 
black man kneeled down, pouring out words as fast as his lips 
could utter them ; and in conclusion of the prayer the whole con- 
gregation joined him in repeating the Apostles' Creed! I was 
grieved to see the state of this poor people. When they rose 
from their knees I requested them to take their seats, and be silent 
for a short time, and then found it to be my duty, by earnest ex- 
hortation, to endeavour to turn them away from placing de- 
pendence on such services, as though this were all they had to do ; 
and pointed out to them the way of salvation by a crucified Lord 
and Redeemer, and the need of a new heart, sanctified and made 
ready by the Holy Spirit, to keep all God's holy commandments. 
I had to bear a strong and pointed testimony at that time, as my 
wife and I had both done before in private, to the sinfiil courses in 
which they were living. They received what we had to say in a 
very proper manner, but they are in a very low state indeed. We 
are told that the parish in which they live is the darkest in all Ja- 
maica. 

2nd month, 3. — Lefl; by a very wretched mountain-road, 

on our way back to Kingston. On coming to a very narrow pass, 
Maria's horse slipped, and fell over the side of the precipice. She 
had the good sense and presence of mind to slide from the saddle and 
seize hold of the bushes ; and hearing her say " I am safe," my 
mind became instantly calm. Our host was on horseback, just be- 
fore, with another person, who was going to guide us when he 
should leave, and a man-servant on foot, so that we had abundant 
help. The horse recovered himself, and we were soon able to 
pursue our perilous journey, but had several times after to dis- 
mount and lead our horses. We were conducted by our guide to 
another Church Missionary station, which lay in our route, and 
were again most kindly received. Dined with the missionary and 
his wife, and reached home before dark, thankful that our hea- 
venly Father had preserved us fi-om harm. 

2nd month, 5. — ^Maria attended the Ladies' Bible Committee ; 
subscriptions promise to be good. 

27id month, 7. — Finished reading a manuscript Review of the 
first Year of unrestricted Freedom, in connexion with the pre- 
vious State of Society. This work was sent me by , at the 

request of the author. When revised and published, as it is in- 
tended to be, it will tend greatly to promote the cause of free- 



•23 

dom. On the subject of marriage I extract the following pas- 
sage : — " The total number of legal marriages celebrated in the 
whole West Indies from 1808 to 1822, that is, in 14 years, was 
3603, of which 3596 were celebrated in Jamaica, an average 
in the whole island of 257 per annum. The average in one of 
the 21 parishes, Manchester, for the last five-and-a-half years, to 
June 30, 1839, has been 366. The population of Manchester is 
about one-twentieth of that of the whole island, and as I have no 
doubt marriage has increased in a like proportion elsewhere, this 
would increase the yearly average from 257 to 7320, or about 
thirty/old.'' This return of marriages is of those celebrated in 
churches and chapels, or according to the rites of the EstabHshed 
Church; but as marriages are celebrated also at the chapels 
of the Dissenters, and the Church of England has next to no 
hold on the confidence of the labouring population, we may fairly 
double the number he gives. In this case we shall have 14,640 
marriages per annum, out of a population of 420,000, or one in 29 
of the whole number, a proportion which seems almost incredible, 
as one in 137 is the proportion in England and Wales, as stated in 
the last report of the registrar-general. Marriages are indeed very 
frequent now, both of those who have long lived as reputed man 
and wife, and of young people beginning life together ; and it begins 
to be thought a shameful thing for people to live as they formerly 
did. The black population are everywhere, under the instruction 
of the missionaries, setting a good example to the whites, and the 
latter are slowly profiting by the lesson. I know one, not very large 
district, in which three planters have lately married brown women, 
the mother of their children, alarmed in their consciences for having 
so long lived in sin : one of them is a magistrate. But notwith- 
standing these hopeful signs of improvement, there remains a great 
deal to be done before society is purified. 

2nd month, 10. — Left home in company with a planter, mer- 
chant and magistrate, to visit his coffee-properties in the moun- 
tains of St. George and St. Andrew. Arrived at Bardowie 
(estimated height 2400 feet) to dinner. This residence com- 
mands an extensive view of the Ligunea plain, the three cities 
of Kingston, Port Royal, and Spanish Town, an extensive line of 
sea-coast, and many mountains. I must omit speaking of coffee- 
plantations, the mode of culture, weight of produce, and other 
matters, till I can give a general sketch of the subject, but would 
just observe in going along, that the labourers are very well satis- 
fied to receive their wages monthly, without taking anything in ad- 
vance. 

2nd monfkj 11. — Conducted by my friend to a neighbour- 
ing property, and stopped by the way to converse with a black 
settler, who nine years ago, when a slave, bought seventeen acres 
of land in the name of his daughter, who was free, for i:117 cur- 
rency, or .£70 sterling. This land was part of an old ruinate coffee- 



24 

plantation, which he has succeeded in part in restoring, and now 
cultivates in coffee and ground provisions. The new small settlers 
who purchase land are most of them contented with the same sort 
of wretched huts they have been used to, and are not at all in ad- 
vance of the common labourers ; but this man seemed highly re- 
spectable every way ; told us he hoped soon to build himself a 
good house, as he was doing well, and that he had sent his son to 
the Normal school to be fitted for a schoolmaster. Called at 
Woodford, a Church Missionary station under the care of a school- 
master and catechist, where much good is doing. 

2nd month, 12. — Continued our mountain-excursion : passed some 
magnificent ferns, fifteen or twenty feet high. Saw the cinnamon and 
pimento. Stopped at Mount Airy plantation, and then on to 
Knowseley to a late dinner and to lodge. 

2nd month, 13. — Continued our mountain-journey. Called at the 

• , a large plantation belonging to • . This property, with 

and adjoining, consists of 1460 acres, of which 250 

acres are planted in coffee, and much of which had been hasten- 
ing to ruin from his people having deserted him. This property 
ought to produce on the average 100,000 lbs. of coffee : this year 
it produces only 20,000 lbs. ! Last autumn a cargo of slaves came 
in to Annatto Bay, twelve miles distant, as a prize to a man- 
of-war. begged the protector of the captives to let him have 

their services for one year, and he would feed them, clothe them, 
lodge them, afford them medical care, and give them sixpence a 
day for their labour ; the bai'gain was made, and the entire company, 

77 men and 11 women, were brought to the on the 31st 

of 10th month last. I asked his permission to see these people : 
he willingly consented : one man was sick whom I saw, and some 
others had sores, but with this exception, all who were then living 
(seven of them had died) were in good health, and at work in the 
fields. Our cavalcade -to view and converse with them consisted 
of four planters and myself. Some women were washing, and 
seemed very cheerful. We passed on and came to a steep hill, 
where 45 of the men were hoeing and cleaning coffee : here we 
dismounted and passed among them, and talked with them 
as well as we could. They were suitably clothed in woollen 
garments, with good felt hats, and were performing their work 
diligently. They were all in the prime of life, very black, as all 
the native Africans are, and of several different nations. A negro 
has been found who can interpret for most of them, but there is 
one man whose language nobody seems to know. They lodge in a 
large house, divided into three apartments ; and this seems the worst 
part of the arrangement, as the classification is very imperfect : I 

complained of it, but assures me it shall be remedied, as 

he is intending to prepare them a number of separate dwellings. 
The condition of the people, on the whole, is better than I should 
have expected j miserable enough, as compared witli being in their 



25 

own land among their own people, but a paradise compared with 
the captivity in Cuba, to which they were destined. Some women 

captives were lately distributed at Montego Bay, and had 

agreed with the protector of captured slaves in that quarter 
to take 15 or 20 of them; but when they saw the ship that 
was to convey them coastwise to his estate, no entreaty could in- 
duce any one of them to go on board, and they were apprenticed 
for a year elsewhere. I mentioned in a former letter that a prize 
had been brought into Kingston with slaves on board ; this vessel 
was sent round to Navy Island to perform quarantine : the cargo is 
about to be disposed of among the planters, and my friend 
has agreed to take 20 of them for one year, to feed, lodge, 
and clothe them, provide medical care, and give them a dollar a 
week each for their labour, hoping by kind treatment to attach them 
permanently to his interests, and settle them on his estates. 

The last plantation I visited on this journey was , but as 

I intend to give at some future time a brief history of coffee- 
planting, I shall enter into no further details now. As we rode 
along, we saw a young man at his provision-grounds. " What 
are you doing there to-day?" said . "Working my provi- 
sions, massa," was the answer. " This is not your day, Thursday." 
" We have done our day's work for the property," he replied. I 
looked at my watch; it was twenty minutes past one o'clock. 
These people often finish their macaroni day's work, which is 
generally a computed task, by eleven o'clock in the forenoon ! 
But more of this when I enter on the questions of labour, wages, 
and provision-grounds, as affecting the condition of the labourers in 
general : their advantages as a working peasantry, except when 
thwarted by unreasonable proprietors and managers, are very great 
indeed. 

2nd month, 16. First-day. — Spent at home in retirement. 

2nd month, 18. — Not being able at present to leave home for 
a distant journey, and understanding that much distress continues to 
exist at the emigrant settlement at Altamont, wrote to James 
Pullett, the Maroon church catechist, inclosing a check for £18 
currency, to relieve urgent necessity. 

2nd month, 20. — Visited, with Maria, the Mico school, and 
examined in detail the mode of tuition and state of the classes. The 
British system cannot be carried out in all its efficiency, owing 
to the want of suitable monitors, and because the boys do not stay 
long enough in the school to learn more than the rudiments of 
knowledge, being removed at an early age to trade and service. 
Boys and girls instructed together under the same roof without the 
least apparent disadvantage. Present, 136 in the large room, 104 
in the infant schoolroom, the latter well instructed under an effi- 
cient master and mistress, who are man and wife. Total of children 
this day 240. Twenty-two boys and girls are employed in giv- 
ing evening instruction to 30 persons, chiefly their parents and 



26 

friends : four of them receive pay for what ,they teach, and two 
have been offered pay and refuse to receive it. On asking a httle 
boy, six years old, what he taught his parents, he said, he taught 
them what God would have them do, and repeated hymns, ^ad 
read to them. 

2nd month, 22. — Attended the German and Portuguese syna- 
gogues. 

2nd month, 23. First-day. — In the morning private retirement 
and worship ; in the afternoon attended the two prisons. At the 
House of Correction there were assembled 120 prisoners, to whom 
I read a portion of Holy Scripture, and whom I afterwards ad- 
dressed at large on some important Christian doctrines and duties. 
A few Christian friends at our house in the evening ; an opportu- 
nity closed with prayer. Retired to rest, thankful for a calm and 
well-spent day, with renewed resolutions to devote myself more 
entirely to Him whose service is perfect freedom, bringing peace to 
the sold. 

2nd month, 24. — Visited the East Queen Street Baptist school, 
and the Wesleyan school on the parade. In the former 213 
children, including 55 infants. Receipts last week only 20s. 
sterling. In this school are 12 children, who, out of school-hours, 
instruct 14 adults, for which six of them receive sixpence per 
week each. A new master, just come out fi*om England, with a 
salary of £200 sterling per annum, is bringing the school into dis- 
cipline : some of the boys read pretty well, but all are young. The 
Wesleyan school had present 124 children, including 34 infants, 
under a good master, and seemed to be doing well. Receipts 24s. 
per week. Two of the children teach adults in the evening. 

This school, together with all the other Wesleyan schools in 
Jamaica, is supported by weekly receipts from the children, at 3d. 
sterling, which are strictly enforced, by congregational collections 
within the island, and by advances out of the missionary fund in 
England. Less noise in this school than in the Mico and Baptist 
schools. 

2nd month, 25. — Visited Woolmer's free-school. Present 224, 
chiefly of the higher grade in society, brown and white. Many 
great boys and girls, from their ignorance, sent to begin instruction 
in the infant-school. The system of teaching is more by masters 
and less by monitors than in the other public schools, and the 
children are very creditably taught. Heard two classes of boys 
spell hard words, and a large class of girls read, which they per- 
formed well : tried also some of the girls in arithmetic : — pretty well 
— no great matters. Three boys out of this school teach altogether 
about 100 adults at the Church of England Sunday-school, for 
which they receive 24s. sterling per annum each : seven other 
children teach seven adults. This free-school gives education to 
about 300 children, including infants, and not to 500, as several 
statements which I have seen would represent. There may be 



27 

nearly 500 on the list, but the attendance always falls very far 
short of the registered number. There is a salaried Spanish and 
French master, a Jew, who teaches these languages to a few of the 
older boys, intended for countinghouses. 

2wd! month y 26. — Began an examination of the boys at the Cen- 
tral National School, but whilst so employed were summoned away 
by a messenger, who informed us that a brigantine, with our friend 
J. J. Gurney and his companions, from New York, had just en- 
tered Kingston harbour. We immediately drove down to the land- 
ing wharf, and seeing the vessel about three miles off, I took a 
canoe and went off to meet it. Glad I was to find all our friends 
in good health, and right glad we were to meet each other : J. J. 
Gurney and his friend Mahlon Day came on shore with me in the 
boat, and A. J. Taylor, remained on board to see to the luggage and 
get it all safely landed. Maria was waiting in the carriage, and 
conveyed them to an hotel about three-quarters of a mile off, where we 
had previously secured apartments for them. 

2nd monthy^l. — Attended our friends in making calls in Kingston, 
and in the evening invited a number of religious persons to meet 
them at our house, to whom their certificates were read, and to 
whom J. J. Gurney gave an animated and interesting account of his 
visit to Santa Cruz, St. Thomas, Tortola, 8t. Kitts, Dominica, and 
Antigua. 

2nd mouthy 28. — In the morning, with our friends : in the 
evening had a second company to meet them; — passed very agree- 
ably in the same manner as the evening before : before we parted, a 
religious opportunity concluded with thanksgiving and prayer. 

2nd month, 29. — Introduced our friends to some of the magi- 
strates, and made other calls with them ; in the afternoon visited 
both the prisons, attended by several of the city authorities, in 
which J. J. Gurney had good religious service, and closed the 

day by taking tea at , and with religious retirement in his 

family : a word of comfort and encouragement flowed to him and 
his wife. 

3rc? month, 1. First-day. — In the morning, at half-past ten, no 
previous notice having been given, attended the East Queen Street 
Baptist chapel, having made an arrangement with Samuel Oughton 
to be allowed to hold the meeting after the manner of Friends. 
After some preliminary service on his part, and the publication of 
numerous banns of marriage, he informed the people the object of 
our dear Friend's visit, and silence ensued. The congregation were 
almost exchisively blacks, and amounted to about 2500 or 3000 in 
number. Our beloved friend preached with power and with much 
faithfulness. I came to the meeting depressed in spirits, but my 
hardness of heart gave way under his ministry ; and whilst I ob- 
served the glistening tears and uplifted eyes of many in the congre- 
gation, and observed their solemn demeanour and devout attention, 
I seemed to participate in the general feeling, and felt it good to be 



28 

there. No pmyer was offered up by our friend, but a scriptural 
valediction was given at the conclusion of the meeting, and great 
love was shown us by the people. It is, I suppose, nearly a cen- 
tury since a public meeting for worship after the manner of Friends 
was before held in Jamaica. In the afternoon, a meeting convened 
by advertisement was held in the Wesleyan chapel, Thames Street, 
attended, it is thought, by 3000 persons of all classes, including 
many merchants and magistrates of the city and neighbourhood. A 
noble Christian testimony was borne by the preacher to the great 
fundamental truths of religion, to the pre-existence, divinity, 
humanity, sufferings, and death of Christ, and to that spiritual 
baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire, without which the natural 
heart of man can never become cleansed of its defilements or made 
meet for glory to come. A solemn prayer concluded the meeting, 
and the people pressed upon us earnestly to shake hands at parting. 
Two magistrates came with our friends to our house to tea : when 
they left us we had a short season of retirement together, and I felt 
constrained to offer up thanks to our Heavenly Father, who had 
been with us so graciously by his presence, and had given us such 
a good day. 

3rd month, 2. — Took our friends J. J. Gurney and his com- 
panions to Papine sugar-estate, seven miles from Kingston, the pro- 
perty of J. B. Wildman, formerly M.P. for Colchester. We break- 
fasted with William Manning, a church catechist, who resides at the 
" Great House," and after examining the works rode over to Hope 
estate, the property of the Duke of Buckingham, which has been, 
till lately, dreadfully neglected and mismanaged, but is now let on 
lease with the Middleton coffee-plantation for £2000 per annum. 
After this we rode to Newtown, a newly-formed settlement of 
about seventy small freeholds, purchased by labourers and cid- 
tivated as provision-grounds. The Papine property consists of 
1700 acres, only 200 of which are in sugar-cultivation, and the 
produce of which this year, owing to a late misunderstanding 
between managers and men, is not likely to exceed fifty hogsheads, 
though it ought to make one hundred and fifty. Large herds of 
cattle are kept, and there is ample pasturage for numerous flocks of 
sheep. In walking over this fine estate, we were astonished to see 
nobody at work ; the people were moving about, restless and un- 
eas}', like bees that are going to swarm. We asked the reason : — 
one was ill, another wished to rest, another would work on Saturday 
instead, and a fourth said, " There was a matter to settle." At last 
we discovered that a " Myal doctor " had come on the property, 
who pretended that he could chase away evil spirits and cure all 
diseases. Our host summoned him and his deluded listeners 
to meet us at the " Great House," and talk the matter over. The 
doctor, a black young man of about twenty, very fashionably 
attired, came in with the easy manners of a perfect gentleman, 
and taking his seat, called for a glass of water, which was 



i 



29 

brought him with haste and reverence by one of the company 
At first, he only professed to cure diseases by the administration 
of simple medicines, suited to the disease complained of; but, 
on being pressed further, told us that he was qualified to 
hold discourse with good spirits of the dead, who intimated to 
him all the secret and hidden evils of the human body, such as no 
human eye could penetrate, and that by this means he could effect 
cures which no white man could perform. We asked the people 
w^hether they believed this ; they said, with one voice, " We do 
believe it," and seemed astonished at our incredulity. J. J. Gurney 
spoke to them on the folly of such superstition; and some of them, in 
return, before we went away, hoped that God would open our eyes 
and make us see clearer. W. Manning told us, that he had of\en 
heard of the superstition, but had never met with an individual who 
would confess that he possessed such supernatural power. Super- 
stition does still prevail, and I fear to a great extent : many of the 
Negroes believe in Obeah^ or witchcraft, and believe that a Myal- 
man has power to neutralize its effects. I was in the court at 
Kingston during the assizes, when three men were arraigned for 
murder. A Myal-man had come on the property where they 
worked, and as they were professors and followed the gospel, they 
resolved to try his pretensions ; and finding them, in their estimation, 
good for nothing, bound him hand and foot, and laid him by the 
side of a neighbouring pond, where the next morning he was found 
drowned : there was nothing, however, to bring home the charge 
of murder, and they were all acquitted. 

^rd month, 3.— Sent forward two mountain-horses and a mule to 
the Falls tavern, and proceeded there in our chaise to breakfast. 
After breakfast, mounted our steeds, and with two men-servants to 
carry our luggage, made w^ay slowdy up the Port Royal mountains 
to Halberstadt plantation. This was the first coffee-estate which 
J. J. Gurney had visited in the West Indies, and with other lands 
adjoining it makes a property of 2012 acres. About 130 acres 
only are in coffee and 15 acres in sugar-cane, the remainder 
is grass, wood-land, provision-ground, and ruinate, but alto- 
gether a very fine estate. The people were all at Avork, active, 
contented, and cheerful, and make great savings. In the even- 
ing rode to Bloxburgh plantation, higher up in the mountains, 
commanding a beautiful prospect of sea and land. Here we saw 
the highest cultivated grounds in Jamaica : Flamsted House, 3800 
feet high, Abbey-Green House, 4233 feet high ; and the Cold-ridge 
peak of the Blue Mountains, twenty-five miles distant, 8000 feet 
high. The latter mountains are generally covered with clouds, but 
never know a fall of snow. Lodged at Halberstadt : here I was 
taken ill in the night, and shook like an aspen-leaf: could not keep 
a limb quiet, but was better the next morning. 

3rc? month, 4. — Rode to Lucky Valley, the residence of its pro- 
prietor, lately fi'om England, and to Lower Lucky Valley, on 



30 

which also the owner lives. Both these estates appear to be 
doing well ; no complaints from masters or men : then onward to 
the grand waterfall on the Falls river, and thence to Kingston. 

3rd month, 6- — Oui' dear friend J. J. Giirney feeling it to be his 
duty to visit different parts of the island, with a view to rehgious ser- 
vice, we agreed to accompany him. We reached Spanish Town to 
dinner, and in the evening attended the Anti-slaveiy Convention for 
Jamaica, at Philippo's chapel, convened for the purpose of appointing 
island delegates to the conventions at New York and London. The 
chair was taken by T. J. Bernard, a member of the council, and ex- 
tensive planter : a large number of ministei*s of diflPerent denominations, 
managers and overseers of estates, and about two thousand of the pea- 
santiy attended. It was one of the most interesting assemblies I 
ever witnessed, and the business was admirably conducted. I could 
but observe the good sense and shrewdness of the people, which 
enabled them to seize on every sentence uttered by the speakers 
which had relation to their own interests, and was rejoiced at the 
warmth with which they welcomed it. " That 's right, massa," " All 
qiute right," " All true ;" with sometimes an exclamation of an op- 
posite cast, as " Shame ! shame ! " Now and then there was a 
clapping of hands from the men, and a bowing of heads of the 
women ; and some urchins of boys, who had found their way into 
the chapel behind the platfonn, caught the joy they could not com- 
prehend, and added their voices to that of the crowd. 

3rd month, 7 and 8. — Confined at the hotel by a repetition of the 
complaint which attacked me in the Port Royal Mountains, and 
called in the aid of Doctor Palmer. 

Srd7no7ith,d. First-day. — Felt myself much better. A veiylai"ge 
public meeting appointed by J. J. Guraey was held this morning in 
Pliihppo's chapel, attended by about 2000 persons, and a crowded 
one in the evening at the Wesleyan chapel : at the latter I felt it 
my duty to enlarge on the question proposed by Joab to Amasa, 
"Art thou in health, my brother ?" The service on the morning 
rested exclusively with our beloved brother, and in the evening 
chiefly so : this also proved a good day. 

3rd month, 10. — Left Spanish ToAvn, passing through the lovely 
Bog-walk in St. Thomas of the Yale, which greatly resembles 
Matlock, to Jericho, a station of the Baptist mission, where we were 
kindly received. The by-road branching fi'om the main-road to Jeri- 
cho proved awfully steep and rugged, and placed the carriages in great 
jeopardy : it was a rainy evening, but we had nevertheless a good 
meeting with about 300 persons, in the schoolroom, also used as a 
chapel. The Negroes of this colony are pre-eminently a church-go- 
ing people, and frequently ride and walk ten, fifteen, and even 
twenty miles to attend on pubHc worship : many of the labourers 
keep horses and mules, which feed on the mountain-sides, and which 
on these occasions they make use of: the women sometimes ride, 
but not often; but come a long way, generally well dressed in white 



31 

robes or chintz, with turban-handkerchiefs on their heads, and fanci- 
ful-looking straw hats, and often carry silk parasols and umbrellas. 
A country chapel congregation in Jamaica is one of the most cheer- 
ful sights imaginable : the people look happy, are polite to one 
another, and have as fine and independent a bearing towards their 
superiors in rank and station as ought to be found in any part of 
the world. I feel bound to acknowledge with gratitude that " He 
who is strength in weakness, riches in poverty, and a present helper 
in the needful time," was with us in the congregation this evening, 
enabling us to discharge a debt of love. 

3rJ month, 11. — Left Jericho at half-past seven a.m., but were 
detained a long time not far from the house, owing to the restive- 
ness of two of the horses, that refused to go through the rocky 
mountain-stream that ran at the bottom of the hill : passed over 
Mount Diabolo, which was so rugged and in some places so steep 
that, although we had the help of six horses, it took us eleven hours 
of hard travelling to perforai thirty-three miles. We had often to 
get out of the carriages and walk, but the toil was amply rewarded 
by the noble prospects around us. The parish of St. Thomas in the 
Vale, full of grass-lands and sugar-estates, was a fine sight from 
the sides of the mountain ; and when we had reached the summit 
and began to descend, the scene was exceedingly picturesque and 
beautiful. The parish of St. Ann, into which we now passed, is 
continued hill and dale in every direction, luxuriantly green, and 
well covered with fruit and forest-trees : the different properties 
look like so many English parks ; the large fields are well fenced 
in wdth neat stone walls, and extensive herds of cattle are seen 
grazing : the Negro habitations are of a superior order, and every- 
thing looks like wealth and prosperity. After resting an hour 
and a half at the Moneaque tavern, we proceeded onward towards 
St. Ann's Bay. A meeting had been appointed at this place, 
to be held at half-past six o'clock : we made every effort to reach 
the chapel in time, but could not; the road though down-hill 
all the way was so terribly rough as to make it unsafe to travel 
otherwise than very slow, and the horses were weary and unable 
to speed us. My carriage and horses being the best of the two, 
we sent J. J. Gurney forward, attended by my wife, with orders to 
the servant to do his best ; but all in vain as to saving the time, for 
just as they entered the town, a crowd of people was pouring from 
the chapel, who had been there an hour and a half, and had given 
up the preacher. J. J. Gurney stept out of the carriage, told 
them who he was, and requested them to return, which they did 
cheerfully ; and when the rest of us came, in an hour after, we found 
him addressing an attentive audience ; and so far from expressing 
disappointment at having been so long detained, they came round 
us when the meeting broke up, and showed by their kind expres- 
sions and glad countenances how thankful they were for the oppor- 
tunity. The computed number was about 800. Two of our company 



32 

lodged at a tavern, the rest of us at the house of T. F. Abbatt, 
the Baptist missionaiy : he has long distinguished himself as the 
friend and protector of the black people, who consequently place 
great confidence in him, coming to him for advice and counsel on 
every emergency. 

We have learned many particulars respecting the well-working 
of freedom in this part of the island: there are exceptions to it, but 
these exceptions may be said to class under slavery rather than 
freedom, inasmuch as they arise out of the misconduct of managers 
tainted with old principles, and resolved if possible to maintain des- 
potism. 

Mannuee Bay estate. The labourers here have been unfairly 
treated, and are gone off to work on other properties. The owner 
complains that his estate is ruined, but refuses to sell it, although 
he has been offered a large sum for it ! — Drax Hall. The proprietor 
says that he has cleared £5,000 currency by the last year's crop : 
one cane-]iiece cleared him £750.= — Saville estate. The owner has 
changed his course of treatment to the labourers, and having made 
a fair agreement with them, everything now goes on well, and he 
wants a large number of additional hands to bring fresh land 
into cultivation. — Drax Hall. I should have added that 200 hogs- 
heads of sugar were made on this property last year, and that 300 
hogsheads are exj^ected in the year to come. The plough is in use 
here and on other estates : ploughmen's wages half-a-dollar a day. 

Almost all the labourers have provision-grounds of about an acre ; 
and these grounds, if the produce be all sold, will clear to each of 
these £20 per annum, currency, in this quarter. In the coffee-moun- 
tains, and on some sugar-properties, the provision-grounds clear 
more than double this sum. The labourers work generally four days 
in the week for their master: wages here Is. 6d. sterling a day; 
rent of house and ground 2s. 6d. per week to the head of the family, 
and Is. per week extra for every member of his family who helps him 
to cultivate ):rovisions, but in the latter case he may have as much 
land as he chooses to work. . 

Price of Land. — Marsh-land between St. Ann's town and the 
sea, which might have been bought a few years ago for £100, 
is now worth more than £500, the latter sum having been re- 
fused for it : trade has much improved since freedom, and land 
is greatly wanted for stores and dwelhng-houses. T. F. Abbatt 
is willing to give £1800 sterling for 400 acres of land not fit for 
sugar, within a mile and a half of the Bay, but cannot at present ob- 
tain it. The labourers are very earnest to get land of their own, and 
place money in his hands for that purpose. William and Mary Waters 
were both slaves ; William follows tlie trade of a blacksmith at the 
Bay, his wife keeps a small store : they have saved since freedom 
^100 currency, and placed £37 of it in T. F. Abbatt's hands : they 
have given £10 to the building of the chapel, and contribute £\Q 
per annum to church-poor ! 



33 

The parish-church at St. Ann's Bay is said to be well attended : 
theWesleyan chapel holds 600 persons, and. the Baptist chapel 
2000. The people (almost all blacks) have contributed .£4000 
currency towards building the latter since the year 1835, besides 
making liberal contributions for the service of the chapel, and 
giving something to the Missionary Society. The chapel is now 
nearly paid for, and in two or three years it is hoped the schools 
will support themselves. One black man from Brown's Town 
and one from Falmouth are appointed delegates to the London 
Anti-slavery Convention, and gone out at the charge of the re- 
spective Baptist congregations in those places. 

3/'c? month, 12. — We all met at the mission-house this morning 
to breakfast, and afterwards J.J. Gurney and myself rode out to call 
on the Wesleyan Ministers. We then returned to the Bay, entered 
our carriages, and set out by the sea-side for Brown's Town, 
travelling six miles by the side of luxuriant cane-fields, till we 
came to Runaway Bay, nine miles from St. Ann's. Here began 
our mountain-ascent ; and here, therefore, as there was no tavern, 
we took out the horses to give them grass and water, and some 
of us took a bath in the fine, clear sea. On taking what we 
presumed to be the right road, for a long way rather steep and 
rugged, we passed numerous groves of pimento-trees, whose leaves 
scented the air, and had extensive views of pasture-land, covered 
with tall Guinea-grass, fenced in wnth stone walls j and saw several 
mansions delightfully situated on rising ground. We walked much 
to relieve the horses, and loitered, supposing we were going the 
right way, and should soon be at Brown's Town, where we had 
fixed to have a meeting, as in other places, at half-past six o'clock. 
When we came to the top of the mountain we found a breadth of 
table-land and a fine sugar-estate ; and seeing a swarm of people just 
come from the works, stopped to inquire the way, that we might 
be quite sure : it was now five o'clock, and the place we were going 
to, they said, was nine miles off" by the nearest route, which lay over 
a mountain not far distant, and that our safest plan would be to re- 
turn the way we came, and take the beaten road, which it seems we 
had missed of Here we were grievously perplexed, not knowing 
what to do ; but finding among the people two labourers on horse- 
back, and several others on foot, who were going to the meeting, and 
who expected to reach it by seven o'clock, it was agreed that J. J. 
Gurney and myself should borrow the horses and take one of the 
company for a guide, and that the remainder should walk by the 
carriages, and help them over the mountain-pass ; happily it was 
moonlight, and the arrangement proved a right one . We mounted the 
horses, and had a swift-footed guide, an excellent young man, who went 
with us out of gospel love, and spoke to us of good things in such a 
good spirit as to make our hearts quite glad. We should have en- 
joyed the ride thoroughly, had it not been for the friends and the 
equipage we left behind us; but the path Ave traversed was so totally 



34 

unsuited to four-wheeled carriages, so steep, narrow, and rough, that 
we feared they would reach us at a late hour. The men, hoM ever, 
had said they would not leave mistress till they saw her safe at 
the mission-house ; and so we went on, trusting that all would prove 
for the best. As we got nearer to Brown's Town we overtook 
numerous groups of contented-looking men and women, well dressed, 
all bending their course, like ourselves, to the meeting. We managed 
to reach it before seven o'clock ; and after taking some refreshment, 
for we had not eaten since breakfast-time, we immediately entered 
the chapel, where we found an assembly of about 1400 persons, to 
whom exhortation and encouragement flowed freely. Before the 
meeting broke up, we had the great satisfaction to see the rest of our 
party enter; and when we all left the chapel the people pressed 
upon us to shake hands, and to repeat their " God bless you, massa; 
God bless you, mistress," and all the other kind benedictions they could 
think of. We now retired to the house of John Clarke, adjoining the 
chapel, and soon afterwards to rest. This is a day we shall not soon 
forget: we felt in it both the leadings and support of a gracious Pro- 
vidence, and were mercifully assisted by Divine grace to preach the 
Gospel to many sincere inquirers, who, we have reason to believe, 
are pressing heavenward, and some of whom are " athirst for God." 
3rd month, 13. — After breakfast, had a family sitting with John 
Clarke and his excellent wife and family : previous to the opportu- 
nity thus embraced, our kind and pious host had given out one of 
Addison's well-known hymns, which was very touching to us: 

" In foreign climes and realms remote, 
Supported by Thy care, 
Through burning climes we passed unhurt, 
And breathed in tainted air ;" 

and we felt grateful, I trust, to Him who had thus far preserved us 
from danger by sea and land, and continued to us all the blessing 
of health. Our dear friend J. J. Guniey addressed the heads of this 
family, with whom we all felt much unity of spirit, in a manner that 
must have been consoling to them ; and the servants were not forgotten 
in the tide of love which flowed. We parted good friends, under 
the happy feeling that there is " one fold and one shepherd." I 
left with these good people .£10 currency towards a fund for clothing 
the aged and destitute. 

The countiy about Brown's Town is exceedingly picturesque; 
hill and dale, covered with luxuriant pasture and fine forest-trees; 
and the town itself is a veiy pleasing object. In this neighbourhood 
was the scene of James Williams' sufferings, and here stands 
the dungeon in which so many horrid deeds have been done. How 
changed the complexion of the times ! the people are now substan- 
tially free and comparatively contented and happy. Let not our 
friends in England suppose that we meet with cases of personal 
cruelty : if they happen at all they must be very rare, for we never 



.35 

hear of them. There are many little acts of oppression practised 
contrary to the law, and often under the sanction of local magi- 
strates, which keep up a spirit of irritation, but which we hope are 
gi'adually getting fewer and may soon die away. It is now the in- 
terest of the master, in a special manner, to be kind, if he would but 
see it, as under freedom, far different from apprenticeship and 
slavery, vexation is a game that both parties can play at: if the 
master practise oppression the labourer can desert him, and with- 
out servants to cultivate his grounds he becomes a poor man. About 
two miles frorx Brown's Town we called at the house of the Wesleyan 
missionary, who had spent the previous evening with us, and who 
said that even a short visit from strangers coming in Christian love 
was a cheering circumstance in such a land as Jamaica : he and his 
wife received us gladly. Whilst we were looking out at the win- 
dows on the fine park in which the house stands, we saw five couple 
of black people, all dressed in white, come riding up at a good pace 
through the pimento-trees : two couple were coming to be married, 
the others as friends and attendants : they entered the house, and 
J. J. Gurney addressed them kindly. When they came up to the 
door I went down the step to help the ladies to alight ; but they hardly 
knew what to make of the attention, and were so aAvkward that 1 
found myself out of place and retired. Going forward on our journey 
we passed through Stewart's Town, now getting to be a large place. 
The new country towns of Jamaica are very different to those of 
England ; each house standing by itself and embracing often a large 
space of ground, so that a few principal dwelhngs, with outhouses 
and servants' rooms belonging, together with the chapel, and perhaps 
a tavern or two, will cover a great deal of land. There are not 
many such towns in a course of building for " the better people," 
but many new free villages are rising for the labouring class, -with 
houses of a somewhat better description than Negro huts, serving 
to prove the advancement of civilization and comfort, where such 
advancement was particularly needed. 

We arrived at Falmouth to dinner, and in the absence of William 
Knibb and his wife were cordially received in his house by his 
brother missionary Ward, and a female friend of theirs, who acted as 
housekeeper. The meeting in the evening was held under unfavour- 
able circumstances, and only about 1000 persons attended, to whom 
our friend J.J. Gurney was engaged in extending largely the word of 
exhortation, more particularly as regards the observance of the moral 
law. I think it was at this time, or at some other, that our beloved 
friend, in concluding the meeting, informed the congregation that he 
did not feel it his religious duty to offer up vocal prayer ; and speak- 
ing of the solemn nature of the engagement, expressed his desire 
that ministers of religion miglit be concerned to wait at all times for 
a Divine attraction and call to the performance of it. 

3rc? month, 14. — Called on the different missionaries and ministers 
in Falmouth, and at the house of the resident magistrate, who was 



from home, and visited both the gaols. Falmouth is the capital for 
Trelawny, a parish of perhaps 30,000 or 32,000 inhabitants ; and we 
found in the House of Correction one English sailor, imprisoned for 
an assault ; and in the County Gaol, two black men for theft : no 
other criminal in either ! In the days of slavery there have been 
80 prisoners at a time in one of these prisons only, many of 
whom were worked on the tread-wheel and in the penal-gang. 
Debtors committed since 1st month, 1st, 1840, jfor rentj 16; insol- 
vency, 5 ; debt on simple contract, 4 : total, 25. The rent-cases 
are the fruit of the Petty-debt Act, which is already worked as an 
engine of oppression — a screw to compel labour. Seven couples 
came this morning to the Suffield schoolroom to be married by the 
Baptist minister ; each couple paid a fee, I think, of two dollars 
each. We had a pleasant ride to Montego Bay by the sea-side, 
and passed through a mangrove-swamp. Oysters attach themselves 
to the stem of the mangrove : they are used as a delicacy for the 
table, and are very good eating. Montego Bay is the second town 
for importance in Jamaica, is large, well built, cleanly, and beauti- 
fully situated at the foot of some high hills : the square is handsome, 
and there is a noble marketplace : it has an episcopal church, several 
chapels, two gaols, and a good racecourse. 

Srdmonthj 15. First-day. — Had a noble meeting in the morning, 
at the Baptist chapel, of about 2400 persons, who were exceedingly 
sedate and attentive : they sat during the time of silence with great 
decorum, and whilst we addressed them, seemed to be much in- 
terested in the solemn subjects unfolded. In the evening took tea 
at the Wesleyan mission-house, and had a meeting in the Me- 
thodist chapel; filled to overflowing. The Baptist chapels in this 
land are attended almost exclusively by black people, the Methodist 
chapels by black and brown, the parish-churches chiefly by white, 
and in some places by an addition of all the other classes. 

During the afternoon, J. J. Gurney, attended by the two resident 
magistrates, visited both the prisons, and found them veiy bad : it was 
very sultry, and I could not bear the fatigue of going with them. On 
passingfrom Falmouth to Montego Bay we stopped to obtain refresh- 
ment at sugar-estate, the propeily of , who resides in Eng- 
land. The map of the estate shows cane-land, 266 acres ; grass, 200 ; 
woodland, waste, and provision-gi'ound, 333 acres : total, 799. There 
are now only about 100 acres in sugar-cane, from which they are 
making three hogsheads of sugar per week : there is no want of la- 
bourers, and the overseer told us they could readily make seven hogs- 
heads, but the would not suffer them to do so. 

3rd month f 16. — Left the Baptist mission-house, where we had 
been hospitably entertained, and proceeded to Mount Carey, another 
residence of the indefatigable Thomas Burchell, which is about equi- 
distant from his three other missionary stations. Here we were glad of 
rest, and agreed to stay two days, finding ample room for ourselves 
(five in number) and three servants ! handsome entertainment at a 



37 

hospitable board, and provender for our six horses. There was some- 
thing patriarchal in the whole establishment. In the evening, set out 
a cavalcade, nine in number, on horses and mules, to visit the Childer- 
man estate, belonging to — Bernard of Bristol, who has the good 
sense to employ a prudent overseer. Plenty of labourers on the pro- 
perty, and no complaint on either side : 72 acres in cane, and 60 hogs- 
heads of sugar this crop. There are many new stone cottages on the 
estate, which cost, in materials and labour, ;£72 sterling each : 
the common thatched hut of the Negroes in the south of the island 
may be built for a third of that sum. 

3rd month J 17. — Thomas Burchell, Joseph John Gurney, and 

myself rode to the estates, where the so-called rebellion broke 

out in 1832, and where, owing to the extreme imprudence of 
a late attorney and a present overseer, there is still much discontent 
among the people, so that but little work is done. The property 
consists of 6950 acres, of which 850 acres are fit for cane, but 
only a small part of that quantity is actually under cultivation. 

The old works were burnt down in the rebellion, and 

still lay in ruins, and the land belonging is now mostly used as a 
penn for feeding cattle, of which we saw some fine herds. There 
are 700 people on the two estates, which at one time, under 
forced cultivation, yielded annually 700 hogsheads of sugar : this 

year the crop will not yield more than 70 hogsheads. The 

estate, belonging to , an absentee, adjoins the : the 

overseers of the two estates are cousins of the name of , 

and this is how they are going on. Some of the provision- 
grounds of the last-mentioned property happen to be within the 

boundary, and just before we came the overseer had 

sent men to dig up the provisions, under pretence of a trespass, and 

bring them to his own house ; and the overseer had turned in 

cattle to destroy some provision-grounds within the right boun- 
dary, because, as he said, the people had taken ground that was 
intended for cane ! Between the two cousins and the two properties 
the poor labourers were harassed and perplexed, and a cry was 
raised against them, that they were idle and discontented and refused 

to work. Wages and rent are settled fairly, according to 's 

express orders, viz. for a common day's work Is. 6d. English, and 
the rent for house and ground 2s. per week, demandable for one per- 
son only : but the labourers complain that the overseer cheats them 
when they come to settle ; and so it is, that as soon as one bickering 
is allayed another springs up, and there is no contentment or peace 
on the property. The only things wanted here are capital to work 
the estate and a wise overseer to manage it : with these advantages, 
from 70 hhds. of sugar annually, the crops would soon yield 700, 
as in days past. When will the great absentee proprietors become 
wise men? 

Examined the children at Mount Carey school — 202 present 
— the very best school we have yet met with in Jamaica. Much 



38 

care had evidently been bestowed on religious instruction, and great 
order and quietness prevailed : we were highly gratified by what 
we saw and heard, and as applied to these and other similar insti- 
tutions conducted in the same spirit, I could readily apply the 
lines of Montgomery, substituting only Jamaica for England : 

" Thy schools the human mind shall raise, 
Guide erring youth in wisdom's ways. 
And leave, when we are turn'd to dust, 
A generation of the just." 

In the evening a meeting for worship was held in the schoolroom 
at Mount Carey, as a chapel is not yet built : it was a rainy even- 
ing, but the room was filled. AVhen the meeting was over, " the 

friends" of were requested to stay, and about 150 remained 

behind, to whom J. J. Gurney addressed a few kind words to 
encourage them to cherish a spirit of conciliation towards their 
employers, of forbearance also at all times, and forgiveness for 
injuries received. Whilst he was speaking, it was quite easy to see 
that his address, as supposed by the people to convey censure, was 
very unpalatable. When he sat do^vn two or three rose at once, and 
one intelligent young Negro undertook their defence : " he wished 
the gentlemen to understand the fault was not theirs : they were 
willing to work and would work, but they had such an overseer 
that they could not agree with him ;" and either at this time, or 
before the meeting, the same individual told us that the labourers had 
sent a letter to the proprietor, in which they told him if he would 
come out and look for himself, and should then say they were in the 
wrong, they would give him six months' labour for nothing. We 
gave them to understand that we imputed no blame to them, and that 
what had been spoken was only to caution them, as professoi's of the 
Gospel, to return good for evil, and to try, if possible y to live at 
peace : this soothed them, and we parted good friends. 

Before we left Mount Carey, I placed in the hands of Thomas 
Burchell ^20 currency, to assist in the erection of a hospital, 
which his people are building at Montego Bay, and £5 for relief 
of the aged and destitute, out of the fi.md entrusted to my care, not 
doubting that such a gift would meet the views of the Committee, my 
friend J. J. Gurney also entirely approving it. Attended by a guide 
through a part of the country but little travelled, we came this day to 
the house of George Marey, of Kepp estate, St. Elizabeth, who re- 
ceived us all with tlie greatest kindness. This gentleman was once a 
large sugar-planter in Westmoreland, and is now retired from busi- 
ness, living alone in the mansion, and devoting his time to the gra- 
tuitous and personal instruction of about 80 children in his own 
house, some of them orphans, whom he wholly maintains, and to the 
religious teaching of adults on a First-day. A meeting for worship 
was held in the evening, attended by about 70 of his neighbours ; and 
a large gathering came the next morning to a family reading of the 
Scriptures, in both of which our friend J. J. Gurney had good service. 



39 

Our kind host was so panic-struck during the apprenticeship, with the 
fear that freedom would ruin the planter, that he sold an estate for 
^1500- which he told us would now fetch j£l 0,000 ! He gave us 
all his blessing at parting, and we left him, grateful for his kind and 
polite attention to us. 

Passed on to Lacovia, the town of St. Elizabeth, consisting 
of a parish chapel-of-ease, two poor taverns, a post-office, and 
another house or two, and immediately gave notice of a meeting for 
seven o'clock at the tavern, which was attended by about a hundred 
people, including the curate, a resident magistrate, and two or three 
planters. Feeling a concern to speak, I addressed the meeting, and 
no offence was taken ; after which our friend J.J. Gurney rose, and 
whilst he was impressing on his hearers the duties of the moral law, 
and among other things telling them that all we do should be done as 
in the sight of God, that a fair day's work should be given for a day's 
wages, and that men should be upright at all times, the magistrate in- 
tertered,and said that '^ he ought not to speak on the subject ofwages, 
as this was delicate ground." J. J. G. replied, " I request to be 
allowed to go on : I am noAv speaking as a minister of the Gospel." 
Soon after the same individual again interrupted him. The ground, 
however, was presently so well cleared from all possible objections, 
that he said, " I am perfectly satisfied ;" and when the meeting broke 
up, advised the people to remember what they had heard and to 
profit by it. 

3rd month, 18. — A day long to be remembered by us for the 
danger and fatigue that attended us, and for the gracious hand that 
carried us through our difficulties. Leaving Lacovia early, we went 
to Barton estate, to the house of Samuel Rickett, to breakfast, 
who had kindly promised to help us on our way to Fairfield, a Mo- 
ravian station in the mountains. To effect this purpose he sent 
four yoke of oxen to the foot of theBogue-hill, and himself attended 
us with horses and a guide. On going along the plain we called 
at Elam, an estate belonging to the Harmans of London and two 
resident proprietors of the name of Foster, where we received 
kind entertainment, and were persuaded to abandon Fairfield as an 
impracticable point, and to go on to Wear Penn to lodge, receiving 
a letter of introduction to John Davey, the owner, and a guide on 
mule-backto conduct us. I should say a few words concerning Barton 
and Elam before we proceed. The former is a sugar-estate, be- 
longing to the Dickersons of Somerset, and S. Rickett is their 
attorney; an enlightened, humane man, who knows more of human 
nature than the generality of his brotlier planters, and manages the 
property well. The charges on this estate during the last year of 
apprenticeship, exclusive of attorney's commission, amounted to 
£2021. 12s. lid. currency; since apprenticeship, for one year of 
13 months, they amount only to j£1816. 13s. 4d., leaving a balance 
in favour of free labour of .£214. 19s. 7d. The produce of the year 
of freedom was less than the previous year by 20 hhds. of sugar, owing 
to a cane-piece of 12 hhds. of sugar liaviug been destroyed by the 



40 

irruption of cattle; but to remedy in part this deficiency 100 
tons of logwood were cut and exported. The balance in money 
would still be in favour of freedom. The Elam estate consists 
of 10,000 acres, having on it 1200 people, and no criminal charge 
has been preferred against any of them since freedom was enacted. 
The proprietors make no complaint against the labourers ; but rent 
and labour are made to bear on each other, and the latter are not 
quite satisfied. Rent 3s. per week, with an extra per caput charge 
for children : wages Is. 6d. per day. This large property is en- 
tailed, but the proprietors hope soon to be able to sell land to 
the labourers, and to build some new substantial cottages. 
Called at their village and talked with the people, who are 
Moravians: two of the sisters, poor black women, gave us two 
shaddocks, out of love to the Gospel and respect for our mission : 
one of them was deformed in person, but of a mild, pleasing coun- 
tenance. 

On arriving at the foot of Bogue-hill, we found the oxen and drivers 
ready : our horses were taken out and the steers put to, and the 
march began. The road was fearfully rugged, and in some places 
steep and precipitous. The drivers urged on the oxen by loud 
shrill sounds that made the mountains echo, and the poor beasts, 
which seemed " unaccustomed to the yoke," rolled Ac carriages about 
from one side of it to the other, often in imminent risk of an over- 
throw. Some of us rode the guides' horses and some walked ; 
and during the three hours that it took us to ascend this terrible 
hill, we were overtaken by a cavalcade of gentlemen, and two 
ladies, who expressed their astonishment at seeing Maria walk ; 
and said, if she would get into one of the carriages, two of the gen- 
tlemen should walk by her side to see that all was safe, and the 
others who were walking should use their horses : the offer we 
accepted, and safely reached the top of the first hill. Here we 
dismissed the steers, and hoped that our troubles were ended, but 
it proved otherwise. Our new friends took us to , the pro- 
perty of , to rest. This man had a melancholy tale to tell; 

nothing went well with him : his labourers had deserted him, his 
spirits were depressed, and he could not tell what to do. We 
found afterwards that he was one of the first, under the new system 
of freedom, to coerce and compel the people, and to make them in 
fact slaves again, which they resented, and left him : he now looks 
in vain for servants to help him, and his property is going to 
decay. We could only pity him and give him good counsel, which 
J. J. Gurney administered kindly. One of the gentlemen who 

helped us up the hill was ,of and , another disappointed 

man : he also had applied the rent-screw to his people to compel 
labour — had sown the wind and was reaping the whirlwind. If 
these men will be infatuated we cannot help it, and must leave them 
to take their own course. Continued traveUing at a slow i-ate over 
a rocky road, till the horses came to an ungain place, where they 
made a dead halt and would go no further. We left the drivers to 



41 

do the best they could, and walked on, distressed and weary, to 
Wear Penn, which we reached before sunset, and where we found 
a comfortable asylum. The owner was from home, but the servants 
prepared us a dinner and lodgings, and we retired to rest early : 
the horses came up sooner than we expected, and found plenty of 
good provender, so that all was right, and we were very thankful. 

3rd month, 21. — ^John Davey, the owner of Wear Penn, who was 
at the house of his brother Dr. Davey, the Gustos, eight miles off, 
came over this morning, bringing his brother with him. Dr. Stewart, 
an enlightened man, a clergyman of the parish, to whom I addressed 
a note, also joined the party, and we lost no time in discoursing of 
Jamaica. John Davey has twenty-two estates under his management, 
and the labourers are working well on all of them : he keeps rent and 
the wages of labour quite distinct; pays wages wdth great regularity, 
and treats his people fairly, kindly, and wisely. Dr. Davey does the 
same, and everything prospers in their hands ! Now for a few facts 
in connexion with this neighbourhood. The people at work on Wear 
Penn seem very happy : one young man told me that he and his 
wife, by working six days in the week, could earn eighteen shillings, 
English money. There are plenty of labourers, and work done by 
the piece is done at a much less cost than under slavery. I saw a 
stone wall, five feet high and four broad at the foundation, lately 
built at five and a half dollars (22s.) the chain, which formerly, by 
the hire of a jobbing-gang of slaves, would have cost £6. 6s. The 
labourers are contented, under good masters, to stay on the pro- 
perty, but when oppression is practised their desire to buy land is 
so strong that they often buy it without a good title, and sometimes 
give five times its value rather than lose it. Oxford estate is in 

Chancery; , Gustos of St. Elizabeth, receiver. When freedom 

came the Gustos agreed to pay certain wages, and to allow the la- 
bourers to live without rent. Last year they planted a piece of 
cane, and on coming for their wages the overseer told them the 
work should go for their rent : they remonstrated in vain ; his orders, 
he said, were peremptory. " Well, Busha," they replied, " you get 
your rent now and better keep it :" they have never done a stroke of 
work among the canes since, and the field now goes by the name of 
" The Rent-PieceJ" John Davey has received in one year, and paid to 
the credit of his employer, .£1600 currency in rent alone, and says 
that the properties under his care yield now a larger return than 
under slavery, at less cost ! 

3rd month, 21. — The road to Mandeville lay through a beau- 
tiful country — the hills covered with primitive forest, and afford- 
ing at particular points some fine prospects, but the often steep 
ascents, rugged as before, made it weary travelling for the poor 
horses, and we got out and walked for miles together. Reaching 
the town before sunset we found an excellent tavern and superior 
accommodation, 



42 

3rcl month, 2*2. First-day. — A large meeting for public worship in 
the chapel belonging to the London Missionary Society ; 1000 
persons present withinside, and 300 Sabbath-school children 
without. In the evening we had a second meeting in the chapel, 
I trust to good purpose. Many of the labourers came to the 
morning meeting on horseback, and one woman, a hundred year* 
old, walked with her staft' nine miles to attend it. 

3rd month, 23. — Reached Porus, a large free settlement of la- 
bourers, to breakfast. Called at the London Missionary school- 
house, and examined the children as to their knowledge of Holy 
Scripture; found it good and were much pleased. Average at- 
tendance, 100. Then onward to Four Paths, Clarendon, where we 
were kindly welcomed by W. G. Barrett, of the London Mission, 
and his brother-in-law James Reid, of the Baptist Mission, at whose 
house we took up our quarters. Had a meeting in the evening with 
about 400 people : when we left they pressed forward as usual to shake 
hands; and one old man said to me, with much simplicity, " Pray 
remember me to all Christian friends." Examined the children at 
the school — 116 in number: great care had been taken to impart 
religious instruction. These schools are a blessing to the island. 

A case of grievous oppression having occurred here, in which a 
poor young man, a deacon of the church, is the object of a vindic- 
tive prosecution, I agreed, with J.J. Gurney's hearty approval, to 
leave fifty dollars for his defence : the latter added twenty more from 
his own purse. The road from Porus to Clarendon runs through a 
wild savanna, covered by a sort of scrub fir, six feet high, which 
shuts out the sugar-estates from view, and gives the country a most 

desolate appearance. — Denhy estate, the property of . Three 

Aveeks ago the people went to for wages, who said the work was 

not well done, and refused to give them more than half their due : they 
immediately struck work, and summoned him to the petty sessions. 
Justice in this case prevailed, and the attorney turned him out of 
his stewardship : they have now resumed work, showing how trac- 
table they are when justice is done them. Some of the sugar- 
estates in the Clarendon Mountains must soon be abandoned for 
sugar, and turned to some other purpose, owing to the state of the 
roads, which forbids the transport of heavy commodities, and to the 
distance of these properties from a shipping-port. It is said they 
have been carried on as sugar-plantations much too long already. 
— Seven Plantations. All goes on well : this property used to make 
six hogsheads of sugar per week ; it now makes eleven. 

3rd month, 24. — Reached Old Harbour Bay, and after a few 
hours' notice had a meeting of 600 persons, in H. C. Taylor's Bap- 
tist Chapel, which, with the exception of the concluding meetings at 
Kingston, was the last appointed meeting in this island. Our dear 
friend, on reviewing his services on this journey of 300 miles, 
acknowledged with gratitude that the good hand of his Heavenly 



43 

Father had been with him in the work — had led him out and 
brought him safely back, and that he felt peace, b elieving that 
Jamaica had been an appointed field of labour for him. 

3rd monthy 29. First-day. — A pubHc meeting this morning at 
Joshua Tinson's chapel, Kingston, and in the afternoon at the Wes- 
leyan chapel, in both of which our beloved friend had large service. 
In the morning meeting he was led to make particular mention of the 
wrongs of Africa, and its heathen darkness, and to express an 
earnest hope that the time would soon come in which some of those 
who now enjoyed in Jamaica the liberty of freedom from outward 
bonds and the blessing of gospel light, would be led, as gospel 
ministers, to visit its shores : he also prayed fervently that the Lord 
would hasten it in his time. Our maid-servant, who was present 
at the meeting, said afterwards to Maria, " The minister did not take 
the book, mistress, and go to chapter and verse, but spoke as the 
Spirit of God led him. I quite understood it, mistress; and when he 
spoke about Africa it was so affecting! [here the tears ran down her 
face]. May God bless him and keep him." At seven o'clock we 
repaired to the chapel of the London Missionary Society, to meet 
the Jews of Kingston, to whom a private invitation had been ex- 
tended to meet us for Divine worship. There might, perhaps, be a 
hundred Jews and Jewesses present, but I think not so many. We 
were both engaged in bearing testimony to the great truths of the 
Christian religion, to an attentive, but scarcely a patient, congrega- 
tion, as some of them, at particular parts of the subject, evidently 
flinched, but they heard us to the end. As we left the meeting, 
one elderly man wished to have the opportunity to reply, but many 
came up to pronounce their benediction, which by one of the com- 
pany was expressed in Hebrew. A young Jewess gave us her 
hand with a smile and a blessing, in a manner which I shall not 
soon forget ; — her very heart seemed to have been touched. I have 
distributed many copies of William Penn's Address to the Jews since 
we came to Kingston. The ministerial labours of our dear friend 
in this land being now concluded, himself and his beloved com- 
panion Mahlon Day, with Samuel Parsons, jun., A. S. Taylor, and 
Samuel Dickenson, came home with Maria and me to our apart- 
ments; and we sat down a short time in silence together, with our 
hearts I trust turned to the Lord in a feeling of gratitude for mer- 
cies vouchsafed, and for help thus far so graciously afforded. 

3rd jnonthy 30. — The ship Whitmore, chartered at Santa Cruz, 
with passengers to Savannah, in Georgia, had been waiting several 
days in Kingston harbour for J.J. Gurney and his three friends, who 
this morning went on board. Her first destination is the Havannah, 
in Cuba : all the passengers received passports to land there, except 
J. J. G., to whom the Spanish Consul positively refused to grant a 
passport or letter of any kind. This man, being known to some of us, 
an apphcation had been made to Sir Charles Metcalfe for a letter of 



44 

introduction to the Governor of Cuba, which was readily furnished; 
and the Mayor of Kingston sent, imrequested, a passport of liis 
own. When the Consul heard of the latter, he said, " You had 
better not make use of it, it will only be the worse for you." We 
may expect, therefore, to hear of cuiious proceedings in the land 
of slavery, and have only to hope that freedom may gain by them, 
whatever they be. 



Hairej- and Darton, IVinters, Gracechnrch Street. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



015 819 994 4 



